Bad For Business
by RumbleintheDumbles
Summary: AU. When a new criminal group starts hitting Dust shops on his turf, professional crook Roman Torchwick and his partner-in-crime Neo decide to investigate - and end up involved in something a bit bigger than robbing shops...
1. A Problem Arises

**A/N: Hi, folks. Finally writing another actual fic - and of course it's about the bad guys again, they're just too much fun. Roman is criminally (hehe, geddit) underused by the fandom considering what a great character he is, and I really wanted to write a fic about him.**

 **Huge credit to Zatroopa on Spacebattles for the original idea!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, it belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Roman Torchwick was a man who considered himself well-educated on the realities of Vale's criminal underworld. In the Business, _who_ you knew was one of the most important factors leading towards your potential success... or failure. Know the right contacts, and your options became far more numerous than they otherwise would have been.

He was also a man who valued the importance of good information. The infamous phrase 'Knowledge is Power' applied perhaps more to criminal enterprise than any other. If you had the right informants, they could tell you where security was lax, who would look the other way if you slipped them some incentive, when and where you could find the particularly valuable goods...

He certainly wasn't the only one who recognised this – many of his 'competitors' did as well, though, all of the serious ones were dead by now (tragic accidents were so easy to come by, these days). Regardless, someone who lived on the 'shady' side of society who had their ear sufficiently low to the ground, could make a hell of a living by passing on all the valuable little bits and pieces that they picked up.

And _nobody's_ ear was lower to the ground than Hei Xiong, or as he was commonly known, 'Junior'. Which was why his formerly small bar had quickly bloomed into a thriving club, and was also why Roman, and his short but colourful partner-in-crime, Neopolitan, were stepping out of a car in a rather dark and dingy-looking alley, opposite a large building.

Neo glanced at their destination in surprise.

"..."

Roman raised an eyebrow. She was right – someone had _definitely_ done the place over. The upstairs windows were smashed, and one of them had apparently been torn right out by the frame from something. He turned to Neo.

"I think you'd better be ready for a little excitement," he said calmly, "Just in case."

She nodded as they opened the door, and headed inside.

The entrance was untouched, apparently – the fight must have started once they had gotten inside. He found a pair of Junior's suited goons standing outside the door.

"Club's closed," one of them said sternly.

Roman stared at the man, unimpressed. "Do I look like I'm here for bad music and worse alcohol? I'm here to see Junior, about _business,_ " he emphasised the last word.

"I don't care what you're here for," the man retorted, " _Club's closed._ Come back another day."

Roman lit a cigar. "Well, well, Neo," he said evenly to his assistant, who was waiting patiently beside him, "It seems the club is closed."

"..." She eyed the two men.

"You're right," Roman agreed, "I _would_ hate to have wasted the journey."

He took a long drag from his cigar, then blew it directly into the doorman's face. "So why don't you go ahead and open it up?"

The doorman in question suddenly found himself keeling over as the small girl's parasol slammed into his gut. His partner at the door barely had the presence of mind to start pulling his gun when he was hit by the first doorman – launched at him by a casual flick of the unconventional weapon. Neo, a confident smirk in place, practically glided over to where the two were groaning and struggling to get up, before knocking them both out with quick strikes to the head.

The whole thing had taken less than ten seconds, and Roman once again found himself appreciating the wonders of having competent help.

"Impressive as usual," Roman commented, "Keep this up, and I _might_ even stop wondering why I keep you around."

She rolled her eyes at him as he strolled through the door – suddenly becoming acutely aware that several dozen eyes had just locked onto him, followed by several dozen hands reaching for weapons. He wasn't particularly concerned – he knew Neo could trash this place on her own easily enough, but he wasn't here to fight.

"Really, now," he called out, "Is this," he motioned to the guns pointed in his direction, "How you treat paying customers? I'm of half a mind to give this place a _terrible_ review on-line."

"I know that voice," a gruff tone commented as a remarkably tall, bearded man, dressed every bit the stereotypical bartender, pushed his way past the other men.

"Junior!" Roman spread his arms in greeting, "It's been so long! And can I just say, I'm _really_ liking the new décor," he waved to the cratered walls, broken furniture and shattered floor, "It gives a _much_ more accurate indication of the level of service your fine establishment offers."

"Torchwick," Junior grunted in reply, "I'd say it was a pleasure, but my mother raised me honest."

"Believe me, Junior," Roman replied airily, "If you have ever had an interaction with me that you'd class as being 'a pleasure', I'd consider it a _personal_ failure."

"What do you want?" Junior demanded.

"The usual," Roman responded, "Information, and as usual, I'm willing to pay. You should feel honoured, you know, you'd be surprised how rare that actually is."

"Somehow, I don't think I would," Junior shook his head, "Stand down, boys."

Roman found his way to the bar as Junior began picking bottles out of the bar and mixing up a drink. Neo jumped up on one of the few unbroken stools beside him. She looked up in surprise a moment later when Junior put an odd-looking drink in front of her.

"One on the house for the idea," he explained, "Those ice-cream sundae vodkas were a big money-spinner."

Roman pointedly avoided the smug look sent his way. "So, I can't help but wonder who felt the need to re-do your interior decorating," Roman asked disinterestedly, "Did someone try your home-brew again, Junior?"

"Nobody you'd know," Junior said, obviously unwilling to talk about it, "Just some hot-head newcomer who doesn't know how things work."

Now _this_ caught Roman's attention. "Really, now? Then it might be related to a little trend _we've_ noticed recently. The one we came here to find out about."

Junior set down his glass and regarded Roman with an unreadable look. "Go on."

"There's someone new in town," Roman said bluntly, "They're hitting Dust at an increasing rate, and soon they're going to make life much more... difficult, for honest, hard-working souls like us," he indicated himself and Neo, who was still happily enjoying her drink. "I want to know what _you_ know about who it is."

Junior leaned back with a snort. "Well, I can tell you right away that the one who hit my club wasn't doing it. I traced them to Beacon, a new starter, but they weren't asking about Dust, or anything like that. Just the location of some woman I've never seen or heard of."

He folded his arms. "I can give you more than that, though. The one you're looking for actually hired my boys for a job a few days ago."

Roman leaned forward in interest. "Really, now? Tell me more."

"I only later found out that they were hitting that Dust Store over near Signal Academy," Junior shook his head. Roman instantly knew what he was talking about – a robbery had been foiled there a few days ago. "They paid up front, they took a few of my men, and I suppose they weren't happy with them, because I haven't seen any of them since."

"And who _was_ this daring new entrepreneur?" Roman asked.

"What's it worth to you?" Junior asked bluntly.

Roman rolled his eyes. "Standard payment."

Junior seemed to mull it over. "Fine," he relented, "I didn't get a name, that was part of the 'no questions' thing, but let me tell you, this lady? You'll recognise her the moment you see her. Little red dress, black hair, legs that go on forever, and clinky little heels - She was a hottie if I've ever seen one."

Roman mulled over the description, but couldn't recall anyone he knew who fit. It seemed there genuinely was a new element in town.

He laid an envelope down on the bar, which Junior palmed and opened, counting the money.

"You really think I'd try to fleece you for the payment?" Roman said, clutching his heart mockingly, "And I thought we were _such good friends._ "

Junior ignored him, nodding in acceptance as he pocketed the envelope.

"Well, Junior, this has been enlightening," Roman stated as he stood up, "By the way... if you find out anything else about the new player in our little sandbox, particularly her name, call me. I'm willing to pay a premium to find out."

"I'll think about it," Junior responded.

"Well, Neo, let's go," Roman turned to his partner, who looked down at her now-empty glass, then back at Roman. She narrowed her eyes.

The duo engaged in a minor stare-down, before Roman finally broke. "Fine, fine," he complained, reaching into his pocket and putting a few notes on the bar, "Get the little lady one for the road as well." he shook his head in annoyance.

The duo found themselves back outside, when Neo suddenly stopped, leaning down to pick something up from the floor.

"What's that?" Roman raised an eyebrow.

She held up the item between her thumb and index finger as she held her parasol beneath her arm.

"A rose petal," he remarked, looking highly unimpressed, "If this is your discount way of showing affection, I'm afraid you're not my type."

She rolled her eyes. "..."

"Okay, now you've got me curious," Roman frowned, "What makes you think it's connected to whoever hit Junior's Club?"

In response, she indicated to the ground around them. Looking down, he noticed what he hadn't looked for before – there were numerous rose petals scattered around on the ground. There certainly wasn't a garden in sight, and this dingy alley wasn't quite near the top of Vale's places to have a romantic rendezvous.

"Fair," he conceded, "Interesting. That may be something to look into once we've solved our current little mystery. For now, though, we've got something else to look into."

"...?" Neo tilted her head in confusion as she took a sip of her drink.

"That Dust shop robbery," Roman explained, "We need to look into it. More importantly, it was foiled, so if any of Junior's men were left alive, they'll be in police custody. We need to get at them and find out what they know," he gave her a look, "Before our mysterious quarry does."

He put a hand on the short girl's shoulder. "Neo, my dear. How do you feel about breaking into a holding cell?"

She smirked. "..."

"I knew you'd say that," he grinned as he opened the car door, and they prepared to set off into the night.


	2. A Visit to Jail

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.

* * *

Roman was not a man who liked coincidences. Unless they were coincidences that he could be sure worked in his favour.

Which was why he was currently frowning as he sat in the driver's seat of his car, skimming through the publicly-available information on the foiled robbery of From Dust Till Dawn on his scroll.

Neo tapped him on the shoulder. "...?"

Roman spared her a glance. "It may be nothing," he stressed.

She raised an eyebrow.

He continued. "Or, it may be _something_."

She leaned back and motioned for him to continue.

"The robbery," he explained, "It seems it was foiled by a young huntress-in-training. Wears a lot of red -"

"...?" She interrupted.

"No, she's definitely not the one who hired Junior's goons," Roman shook his head as he took a cigar from his pocket, "This little vigilante is fifteen. While I could sit and debate at length Junior's _many_ failings as a person, liking them young isn't one of them. No, what caught my interest was the name," he paused, "Ruby Rose."

She shot him a questioning look as he lit up.

"We know Junior's club was worked over by a newcomer who apparently left rose petals at the scene – days later, a dust robbery is foiled by an up-and-coming Huntress called Ruby Rose?" he took a deep drag.

"..."

"They do say twice is happenstance," he acknowledged, "But you know me well enough by now to know I'm not the sort of naïve idiot to let someone make it to three."

"..." she pointed out.

"True," he agreed, "We still don't know if it's the same person. But if it _is_ , little miss Red here has been showing a _lot_ of interest in things a school-kid really shouldn't know about at all. That's _interesting_."

She conceded the point.

"But setting that aside for now, let's look at more solid leads. Someone, apparently a woman and the ringleader, took exception to Red knocking out their hired muscle," his eyes flicked to that part of the article, "And they ended up in a fight. One of the teachers from Beacon jumped in and our mysterious lady criminal escaped – it doesn't say how. I think it's fair to say _that's_ the one who hired them, and has been kicking up so much fuss recently."

"...?"

"According to the article? They were arrested," Roman replied, "And since there hasn't been any news of anyone dying in custody yet, I'd say we may still have an opportunity. And look at this – the news were even courteous enough to provide a handy picture! Ah, where _would_ we be without the media?"

He got out of the car, Neo following suit. He eyed the police station carefully – they had parked down the road from it so as not to be too obvious, but it still paid to be subtle.

"It's times like this that I really appreciate those little tricks of yours," Roman mused as he turned to his companion, "Let's drop in and say hello, shall we?"

* * *

In the holding cell of Vale City Police Station, Huan Yu was silently cursing his unfortunate turn of luck.

First, that hottie showed up in the Boss' club, looking to hire men for a 'special' job. Most of them had fallen over themselves to volunteer, of course.

At the start, it didn't seem like anything would go wrong. She stayed back and watched from afar (and damn, that little catsuit number was something else), while the boys went in and robbed the shop. Dust was pretty risky, but she'd assured them she had it all under control.

Then, all of a sudden, some little girl put David through a window. Then she pulled out some giant...scythe...thing, and, for the second time in a few days, they felt the pain and humiliation of being beaten senseless by a teenage girl.

Being mercifully unconscious, Huan didn't know what happened after that point, but from what he pieced together via the police interrogations, apparently the girl then spotted their honey-trap boss and confronted her, starting a big fight but not managing to catch her, even with another huntress jumping in.

Then he woke up in police custody. He was due to go on trial for armed robbery, and with his record, he was sure to end up doing time unless Junior busted him out somehow, which was unlikely, at best. Still, he had stubbornly refused to give them any details, just in case – and he was certain the rest of the men would have done the same.

He sat up on the bed in his cell, staring miserably at the wall, grey and dreary, with strange, glass-like cracks throughout...

Wait, what?

The entire wall seemed to crack up with the loud sound of shattering glass, and he scrambled back against the wall, suddenly aware that he wasn't the only person in the cell any more.

"So _this_ is what they look like from the inside," the man in the flashy white suit and black bowler hat said idly, before locking eyes with him, "And you must be... Huan, is it? Or are you one of the other guys? Sorry, it's just, well, you all look the _same_ to me."

Huan, panicking, looked out of the bars, waiting for the guards to show up, undoubtedly attracted by the noise.

"Oh, don't worry, nobody heard that," The man shook his head, "Scratch it up to the wonderful talents of my friend here," he motioned to the small girl beside him, with odd-coloured hair and dressed equally flamboyantly.

"W-who are you?" Huan asked fearfully.

"Ah, how _impolite_ of me not to introduce myself," the man gave a short, mocking bow, "My name is Roman Torchwick. I'm in business with Junior, and I'm here, Huan, to ensure that your stay in this cell is a _very short_ one indeed."

Huan felt his panic begin to recede, replaced with elation. Junior had actually sent someone to bust him out!

"But first, of course, we need to know about this woman who hired you," Roman informed him, "After all, we need to make sure she's _taken care of_ before we get you out, right? We can't have her coming back to mess with you again once you're out of this nice, safe cell."

Huan looked unsure. "But shouldn't we be busting out now?"

"Relax," Roman waved off his concerns, "The guards aren't going to notice anything's wrong until my friend here wants them to. Now, the woman who hired you. Tell me about her."

"Okay..." Huan began, scratching his head, "Well, she was a total hottie."

Roman sighed. "Yes, I've heard that already. What about her name? Did she give that?"

"No," Huan said after a moment of thought, "No names. She just told us to call her 'Madam'," he reminisced with a goofy grin.

"Charming," Roman said flatly, "The Dust. What were you supposed to do with it? Where were you supposed to take it?"

"Uh," Huan wracked his brain, "There was a pick-up point. On a roof."

His rescuer shared a look with the other girl. "A roof? They had flying transport? Well, well. These people have _resources_ ," he turned back to Huan, "Now, is there anything else you can tell me about her? _Anything at all?_ Remember, this is all so we can protect you, here."

"Uh... no, that's it," Huan said apologetically, "There wasn't anything else."

Roman looked disappointed. "All right, then," he then suddenly looked curious, "One more thing. What can you tell me about the girl who stopped you?"

"The little girl?" Huan asked in confusion.

"She might be in on it," Roman confided in him, "We need to be sure."

"Oh," he nodded in realisation, "That's smart. Yeah, she was _crazy_. Had this big huge scythe thing, and she was too fast. One second, she was here, the next," he flared his hands, "Poof! She's over there and you're looking at a pile of flower petals. She was no ordinary girl. Just like the other one who busted the club."

Roman and his companion shared a significant look.

" _Other_ one?"

Huan shuddered. "Yeah, that crazy blonde-haired chick. She came in and started beating up on everyone."

"I see," Roman said thoughtfully, then he patted Huan on the back, "Thanks for that. You know, Huan, I _like_ you. You're a helpful guy."

Huan grinned awkwardly.

"In fact, I like you so much that I must admit, it actually made me very _sad_ when I learned that you died in custody."

A gloved hand clamped around Huan's throat like a steel vice. Gasping and trying to pull it off, his eyes met the pink and white of Roman's companion – wearing a vicious smirk. How could such a small girl have such a strong grip?

"But... you said..." he choked out.

"I said your stay here would be a short one, yes." Roman agreed pleasantly, "Don't you just _love_ it when people deliver on their promises?"

Huan desperately struggled, tried to call for help, for anyone, but it was to no avail. His world soon darkened, and eventually went black. The last words he ever heard came in the cold, mocking voice of the man he had so foolishly thought to be his saviour.

"Police brutality... such a cruel thing. But at least I can soothe my aching heart with the knowledge that you can't let them know about us when they come for you, can't I?"

* * *

Roman felt disappointed in the results of the night's escapade as they headed back to the car. He figured that it would take the guards at least until morning to discover that their prisoner wasn't actually asleep – plenty of time to get far away. There was next to no chance of them tracing it back to him and Neo, of course, but it paid to be careful.

"So, we've still got nothing on our mysterious would-be crime-lord other than that she's got backing," Roman frowned, "And now it turns out the girl who worked over Junior's club is a different one altogether. Not exactly the _most_ productive evening I've ever had."

If it wasn't the same girl, why the rose petals? Were they working together, was it some kind of calling card? He still had far too little information on any of this.

He then noticed his partner staring intently over in another direction. "What are you looking at?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

In response, Neo pointed curiously at one of the alleys near the police station. Roman had to squint hard – then he caught it. A flash of movement.

Apparently, someone was here who didn't want to be seen.

Interesting. Perhaps this was the stroke of luck he was looking for.

* * *

The hooded figure crouched in the shadows, eyeing the police station thoughtfully. He considered how he was going to make it in and reach the holding cell – perhaps one of the windows? Or a back door. It would require some scouting of the building to find an appropriate entry and exit.

Whatever the case, he had to be quick. This task was already being accomplished unacceptably late. The order had come from up high: as part of their mysterious new 'partnership'. Get in, find the goons, make sure they hadn't said anything, and silence them, as soon as possible. Due to a mix-up in communication, the orders had taken too long to filter down. As such, they needed it done, now.

Faunus often made naturally good infiltrators due to their biological advantages in that respect. It was only natural for a militant organisation to take advantage of this by training several members in stealth and infiltration skills – he had been one of several possible choices to carry this one out.

He began to move to another location to get a better view, and all of a sudden, he was sent scrambling to the ground by a powerful blow.

He desperately tried to get up – but was forced to the ground by something long and thin jabbing into his upper back. How the hell had they managed to sneak up on him?

"Well, well, what _have_ we got here?" he tried to look up at the owner of the distinctly male voice, but couldn't twist his head enough. He saw another person jump down in her field of vision – a Human girl, with oddly-coloured hair and eyes, "I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise to find an animal shuffling around in the dark."

The girl clapped her hands together in glee and beamed at the unseen captor.

"...!"

He heard the man tut. "No, Neo, we can't keep him," he felt more pressure on his back, "You don't know where he's been."

He reached for his short sword - only for it to be kicked out of the sheath.

" _No,_ " the man scolded, " _Bad_ animal. Remember what Mother Nature told you? _No tool use before you've finished evolving sentience._ "

"Get off me, you filthy Human! Or I swear I'll tear you apart!" he hissed furiously as he tried to find leverage.

The girl, Neo, took a step back and grasped her heart mockingly.

"'Filthy Human'? Such hypocritical words from such a scruffy little beast," he sounded amused, "But that rhetoric certainly rings a bell! A Faunus, sneaking around near a police station, at a rather convenient time, and spouting phrases like 'Filthy Human'? That sounds quite _familiar_ to me. How about you, Neo?"

She gave a smiling nod of agreement.

"Let – me – go! Bastard!" he struggled to get up, but was forced down again.

"Now why would I want to do that? I don't like you," the man questioned, "After all, tomorrow morning, they're going to find you next to the body of my _good friend_ , Huan. I _liked_ Huan. Helpful guy. But before we get to that..." the white-coated Human walked around into his field of vision, still holding him down with what he now could see was a cane. He smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.

"...You're going to tell me _all about_ what the White Fang is doing here."


	3. A Pair of Proposals

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, it belongs to the wonderful Rooster Teeth.

* * *

It was not the piece of news she had particularly wanted to wake up to.

The task was simple, and was there to ensure that they remained as mysterious as possible to the police and authorities. What actually happened was the opposite of that. The White Fang's infiltrator had apparently failed to kill even one of those hired goons in their cell without dying in the process – and having a member discovered murdering inmates had suddenly forced a lot of attention on the White Fang that they _really_ didn't want right now.

Cinder Fall was furious. And she knew _exactly_ who she wanted to take her ire out on.

"Adam," she said calmly to the man leaning against the wall of her office. His red hair was unkempt and messy, while the top half of his face was covered by a white mask reminiscent of the Grimm, "You told me your infiltrator could get the job done. This," she motioned to the article, "Does not look like _getting the job done_."

"They should have been able to do it," Adam Taurus grunted in return, folding his arms, "Obviously, something unexpectedly went wrong. One of my trained people should not have had any trouble killing an unarmed _street thug_."

"And yet, they did," Cinder said coldly, "I do not accept incompetence _lightly_ , Adam."

He said nothing.

Cinder stood up from the desk she had been sitting at and began to pace. "This extra attention may set our plans back significantly," she mused in irritation, "But we must continue with our dust acquisition. You need to ensure that... _productivity_... is not disrupted by the additional attention."

"You'll have your Dust," he snorted as he began to leave, "Don't worry."

"I hope you don't fail again, Adam," she said sweetly, "The consequences of another failure would be _quite_ severe."

He stopped. And turned around, slowly.

"Really, now?" he said evenly, taking a step towards her, "And which consequences would _those_ be?"

Her eyes narrowed. The tension in the room suddenly rocketed up a notch.

"Save your _threats_ for the people who actually _fear you_ , little girl," Adam growled as he leaned in, "Because all they do to me is _piss me off_."

She took a deep breath, and forced herself to relax. She did not want to start a fight with Taurus in the middle of a base full of White Fang members.

"A slip of the tongue," she sighed, "Of course, a failure to achieve our goals would have significant consequences for _both_ of us. I merely want to make sure we _all_ get what we need," her voice turned reassuring, "That your people get the freedom they _deserve_."

He gave her a long look. "As I said," he grunted shortly, before turning to leave again, "You'll get your Dust."

Cinder began massaging her temples once he left. True to his name, Adam Taurus was like a raging bull – certainly useful if you could point him at your enemies, but extraordinarily difficult to control. If not for the fact that he was the biggest source of man-power available to her, she might have considered him too much trouble to deal with.

"I just saw our resident terrorist storming out of here looking even _more_ pissed than usual," her musings were interrupted by the appearance of one of her own favoured underlings, "Was it the red dress again? I keep telling you, you shouldn't wear that around him. The colour? Makes him _mad_."

Mercury Black was a cocky, confident young man, more vibrant than his rather droll grey hair or grey and black attire would suggest. He was also a talented fighter with a unique style, good looking, and a smooth talker – very handy traits for someone like her to make use of.

"Taurus has his uses," she finally said, "More than anything, we need the people who follow him. On that topic, however, your timing is fortunate. I have a task for you."

Mercury folded his arms. "Oh?"

"I'm sure you're aware of the White Fang's... unfortunate failure," she stated.

"Oh, yeah," he nodded, "Their guy really messed up."

"Indeed," she frowned, "With the added, and _unwanted_ , attention we're sure to receive from this incident, I believe we are going to require more in the way of man-power to meet our requirements."

"So you want me to go recruiting?" Mercury asked with a raised eyebrow.

"In a manner of speaking," Cinder nodded, "You remember the individual I hired those men from, correct?"

"That Junior guy," Mercury recalled, "Local information broker and go-to-guy for hired help."

"Head to his club, and get him on-board. He can provide us with more bodies, and his knowledge of the local crime world will prove useful to us," she explained.

"Okay," he nodded, "But the White Fang were just caught trying to kill one of his guys. I'm not sure he's going to be too happy to work with us after that – so what if he says no?"

"Oh, _Mercury,_ " Cinder said with a tempting smile, "You _know_ how I feel about that word. If he _refuses_ our offer..." She held out her palm. Mercury watched, silently, as a ball of flame appeared in her hand.

"...You know _exactly_ what to do."

"Finally," Mercury smirked with anticipation as he turned to leave, "I've been waiting _forever_ for you to let me have a little fun."

* * *

While not quite a treasure-trove of information, the White Fang assassin did provide Roman with some of the pieces he needed to make sense of his current problem. He found himself going over what he knew in his office the next day.

The enigmatic newcomer was in partnership with the White Fang, who were the ones behind all the Dust Robberies. They were stockpiling dust for some sort of ultimate end goal. He still didn't have a name for this mysterious woman – apparently she didn't interact all that much with the White Fang's grunts, which didn't surprise him at all.

Neo frowned. "..."

"I know," he said reluctantly, "This is getting pretty big."

"...?" She asked.

"Yes, perhaps even _too_ big." He was good. Hell, at what he did? Profiting from the misery of other people? He liked to think he was the best. But taking on the White Fang? A powerful paramilitary organisation? That may have been beyond even _his_ outstanding abilities.

And yet, if they kept this up, they would put him out of business. His options were limited; He could move out of Vale and start anew, making his local knowledge useless and losing nearly all of his contacts – not a very preferable option, but one he would certainly keep on the back-burner. He could also sit back and let things play out or perhaps even join them – but that wasn't looking like a very good option for him.

Even presuming the authorities didn't stop the newcomers and proceed to make criminal activity in Vale next to impossible in the ensuing clamp-down, whatever plan they had probably wasn't beneficial to his long-term bottom line. The list of things you would do with a massive stockpile of Dust was rather small. The obvious thought would be equipping an army, and wars weren't exactly known for leaving vast economic opportunities in their wake.

Another thought would be collapsing the Economy – as a man who make most of his profit from the Economy (albeit not legally), this didn't really appeal to him at all. Or, of course, being fanatical terrorists as they were, the White Fang may have just been planning to blow up the entire god damn city with it all. Again – not the best choice for his economic prospects.

He came to a conclusion – to continue with his preferred way of life, he had to take them down. And to do that...

"We need backup," Roman finally admitted.

Neo nodded reluctantly.

"And there's only one place we can go," the words tasted like ash in his mouth, "We have to go crawling back to that snivelling, idiotic _fool_ -"

"Junior!" Roman greeted pleasantly as he sat down at the bar, "How _good_ to see you again! Sorry to hear about your guy," he added solemnly, "A real tragedy."

"Torchwick," Junior rolled his eyes as he cleaned a glass, "What do you want?"

" _Want_ is such a one-sided term," Roman complained, "What I'm here to discuss is a proposition that benefits _both_ of us."

Junior sighed. "What kind of proposition?"

Roman clasped his fingers together as he leaned on his elbows. "One where you and I work together to solve a _common_ problem."

Juniors' eyes flicked left and right to check if anyone was listening. Most of the men were milling around the club doing their assorted jobs, while Melanie and Miltia were sitting over in a side booth, chatting. They hadn't declared themselves open for business just yet, either, as they were still cleaning up the mess from that damn Blondie's rampage, so he didn't have patrons to worry about.

"You want me to help you take on the White Fang," he snorted, "You must be out of your damn mind, Torchwick."

"And you put the pieces together so _quickly_ , too! Why, Junior, if I didn't know better I'd say that head of yours was filling up with something other than cocktail recipes and other peoples' business," Roman said appreciatively, before his tone turned more serious, "Look, I'll even give you this one for free – they're the ones behind the Dust robberies. They're taking in a lot of Dust for some kind of _nefarious plan_ ," he made quotation marks with his fingers, "Of your mysterious lady visitors' making, and, of course, they've killed one of your men already."

Junior's hand tightened around the glass.

"They've already proved that they're willing to trample over the likes of you and me," Roman pressed the point home, "Do you _really_ think they're going to just _let you be?_ "

"And how, exactly, would this 'arrangement' work?" Junior asked evenly.

"Simple, really," Roman leaned back, " _You've_ got the man-power and the word on the street, _I've_ got the brains," he tapped his skull, "And the brawn," he motioned to Neo, who was once again happily sipping on an ice-cream sundae Vodka mixer – this one with actual Neopolitan ice-cream. Roman honestly thought he'd heard her audibly squeal in delight when it was put in front of her. "Between us? We could deal with this, _no problem_. And, of course, there'll be some profit to be made from it too," the thief smirked, "When we get our hands on _all_ of that stockpiled Dust they've taken so far, and split the proceeds fifty-fifty."

Junior was silent for a moment. "It's a big risk you're asking me to take here, Torchwick," he finally grunted, "I need to think about this. I'll call you once I've made up my mind."

Roman frowned, but supposed this was the best he was going to get. "Fine," he stood up, "Just remember what I said, Junior. This is a problem for both of us. I know you'll come to your senses eventually."

"Just buy a drink or get out of my damn club," Junior rolled his eyes.

"Well then, Neo," Roman motioned to his partner, "Let's be on our way."

As they walked out of the building, Neo still occupied with her drink, Roman pondered how he was going to fix things up to swing Junior's opinion his way. The obvious choice would be to frame the White Fang for something... but what?

"Nice hat," a grey-haired young man complimented as he entered the club.

"I know," Roman replied absently, lost in thought.

* * *

The young man strolled in, full of confidence, and made his way straight to the bar. Junior eyed him with a frown – then made eye contact with the Twins. They nodded, and got up – making their way over as well. If he was getting in, he'd either fought, talked or sneaked his way past the two doormen. Junior honestly didn't know which option was _more_ dangerous.

The new face sat down – he was the pretty-boy type, but Junior wasn't in the business of underestimating _anyone_ since his _last_ unknown visitor. Melanie and Miltia sat down on either side of him - which did not go unnoticed, but he didn't seem concerned.

"Well, well, Miltia," Melanie drawled, "This one's pretty cute."

"I know, Melanie," Miltia giggled in reply, "Let's hope we can keep him that way."

"What will you be having?" Junior asked, deciding to be amicable - at least at first.

"A conversation," he replied, "You see, Junior, I've got a proposition that you _really_ want to hear."

"Oh?" Junior put down another glass, "Seems to be the time of year for those. What kind of proposition are we talking about, here, kid?"

"Oh, please," he replied easily, "Call me Mercury."

"Fine then, Mercury," the bartender grunted, "You didn't answer my question."

"Well, you see, I work for an individual who has hired your people in the past," Mercury began delicately, "And she found your services to be _more_ than adequate. She would like to make a more... _permanent_ , deal."

"More than adequate, huh," Junior snorted, "I'm sure that's why one of my boys is lying dead in a police morgue with one of your attack dogs' teeth in his throat."

Mercury frowned. "A regrettable misunderstanding," he sighed, "One of our allies mistook our instructions to _take care of_ your men. This is the kind of problem you can face when you work with a group like the White Fang, which is why we've turned to..." he looked around, "A _better_ class of hired help."

"Oh, really," Junior narrowed his eyes. This one was definitely smooth, he'd give him that. "And what, exactly, is stopping another 'regrettable misunderstanding' from happening?"

"Oh, if you decide to work with us, we'll make sure it _never_ happens again," Mercury said lightly, as he put his feet up on the bar, much to Junior's ire, "We'll also make sure you're _well rewarded_ for your services. If you decide _not_ to join us, however..." he trailed off, "Well, I can't guarantee there won't be any more... misunderstandings."

Junior gave him an unreadable look. "Huan was an idiot," he grunted, "He was naïve, stupid and ignorant. He'd open his mouth and say stupid things that annoyed the hell out of me, and he'd do it all the god damn time. But do you know what else he was?" he leaned forward, "One of _my men_."

He glared at Mercury. "Now _get the hell out of my bar_."

Mercury sighed theatrically. "Well, well," he said absently, "It looks like _negotiations_ have failed..."

Without warning, a shot flew from his boot, knocking Junior back against the drinks cabinet behind him. Mercury used the recoil to lean into a backwards flip from his stool, narrowly avoiding the claw and bladed shoe that sliced through his former position at the bar a moment later. Landing on his feet, he put some more distance between himself and the twins with a pair of backwards cartwheels in an impressive display of acrobatic ability, before settling into a loose fighting stance.

He gave the three a confident smirk as Melanie and Miltia settled into stances of their own.

"So how about we have a _misunderstanding?_ "


	4. A Brief Battle

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. It belongs to those wonderful people over at Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

As the four fighters stared each other down, Junior's men evacuated the building.

"Like, Melanie," the girl in the red dress drawled, "It looks like this guy _really_ needs to learn who he's messing with."

"I know, Miltia," the white-dressed one replied, "And I've _totally_ been wanting to beat something up since the other night, too."

Mercury had initially expected the pair of twins to split up and try to surround him. One would attract his attention by attacking head-on, while the other would hit him from the flank. It was the most obvious way to end a fight quickly and with minimal injury when you outnumbered your opponent - at least, in his opinion.

Unbeknownst to him, they had actually learned a thing or two from their previous fight with Yang Xiao Long: namely, that presenting individual targets was to be avoided as much as possible.

So when the pair _both_ darted in to charge him head-on, he would admit to being slightly surprised. Melanie, the white-clad kicker, launched a high kick with her left leg. Whirling into action, Mercury blocked her at the shin with his own left – allowing him to bend his knee to drive back Miltia, the red-clad striker with a well-timed shot from his boot. To her credit, she managed to block it, but she had been forced back, and her initial attack had been stymied.

Mercury didn't stop moving for a moment. Using the recoil of the shot, he span into a powerful head-height kick that Melanie was forced to cartwheel backwards to avoid. He was given no time to breathe, however, as Miltia had already closed the distance again. His left foot touched the ground and his right left it a moment later, a strong roundhouse kick nearly catching her as she leapt back to avoid it.

 _'So that's your plan,'_ he thought appraisingly, _'Not bad.'_

They weren't going to give him time to breathe. Miltia's presumably quick hand strikes would be awkward for a pure kicker like him to defend against – no matter how powerful your legs were, arms tended to be faster - so he had to be sure to keep her too far away to use them. However, Melanie was a kicker like him and so could almost match him for reach, so he couldn't let himself lose track of her, either. They were apparently hoping to pressure him together until he made a mistake and let one of them inside his guard.

And speaking of losing track... he jumped into a spin and burst into a furious series of kicked gunshots, intercepting the round of missiles that had been fired at him from Junior, still standing behind the bar.

 _'So I can't stay at range either,'_ he smirked, as Melanie and Miltia came in for another attack run, _'But you'll still have to do better than that.'_

This time, when Melanie made her first kick, he didn't stay on his feet. In an impressive display of acrobatic skill, he hit the ground and began spinning on his palms, becoming a flurry of legs and feet that parried each of Miltia's strikes, while low, sweeping kicks kept Melanie at bay, the kicker mindful of having her legs swept out from under her.

 _'So you can't bottom-rock,'_ he thought in amusement, _'I didn't think so with that get-up.'_

Spotting an opportunity, he suddenly pushed forward from his palms and onto one knee – before his boots went off, the recoil blasting him up into a powerful jumping knee-strike. Miltia barely got her arms up in time to block, but was still sent flying backwards by the impact. Hitting the ground, rolling then breaking into a run, he never stopped being in motion as he moved past Melanie – distracted by her twin's impromptu flight – and towards the surprised Junior.

Quickly approaching the bar, he leapt into a high kick, but Junior managed to raise his missile-launcher-club in time to block the strike.

 _'Hiding behind the bar limits how I can attack him,'_ Mercury thought in annoyance, _'Normally, I doubt he could keep up with me, but if he knows I'm going high and straight, he can block in time.'_

Junior swung with all of his strength, throwing Mercury away from the bar and towards Melanie, who prepared to intercept his flight with a kick. He wasn't going to oblige her, however: he fired his shot-boots, the recoil sending him straight to the ground. Prepared for this, he managed to turn his sudden drop into a backwards roll, going directly under her sweeping high kick and coming to a stop directly behind her.

Head turning, her eyes widened as he leapt up from his crouched position.

 _'Got you!'_

Unable to react in time, Melanie was caught painfully in the lower back by a rising kick from his left foot, lifting her up into the air. With a shout of exertion and another shot, he launched himself into a back-flip, his right foot colliding with the girl and launching her clean across the room.

 _ **Boom.**_ With a thunderous sound, she collided with the wall behind him as he landed neatly on his feet. He smirked, knowing immediately that she was out of the fight.

Miltia was keen to avenge her twin, however. She was already closing him down, which actually was something of a problem, as he was now keenly aware that he needed to reload. He tried to pedal back and put some distance between himself and the still-conscious twin, but she was too fast on her feet for that.

She then headed straight for him in a burst of speed – however, as he went to back-pedal further, a series of explosions went off directly _behind_ him, stopping him from going further.

 _'That missile launcher!'_

He was unable to step back, and Miltia was already inside his guard. He was forced to raise his arms in a block to defend himself – a series of quick, but surprisingly savage strikes slashed into his lower arms, making him grimace.

She went for another strike, but he had had just about enough of that - this time, he caught her by surprise. His hand reached out and grabbed her forearm, pulling her forward and off-balance. Twisting around her as she stumbled, his foot lashed into the back of her leg just below the knee – forcing it to buckle, and knocking her painfully to the floor. Before she could get up again, he took her out of the fight with a solid kick to the head.

He turned his eyes to the suddenly significantly more nervous Junior, who was trying to reload as quickly as possible while Mercury took the chance to reload his own shot-boots.

Fully-loaded once more, he broke out into a run directly towards the club owner. Like before, Junior ceased his attempts at loading more missiles and got ready to block it with his bat – however, Mercury wasn't about to make the same mistake twice. Instead of jumping straight _over_ the bar, he jumped directly _on to_ it, before twisting around to catch Junior, who had been prepared to block a frontal attack, with a kick from the right...

His foot connected, and Junior's image shattered like a damaged window.

 _'What the hell?'_

The next thing he felt, aside from confusion, was something hooking around his leg and pulling it out from under him, sending him tumbling clean off the bar. Recovering with a cartwheel, he fired a burst of two shots off at his new opponent, only for them to ricochet from the surface of a parasol. As it folded back up, he got his first look at his new adversary.

It was another girl – this one a lot shorter, with a rather colourful appearance. While there were many eye-catching things about the girl's attire, such as the pink and dark brown hair, or white tail-coat, the first thing that drew Mercury's attention was the confident smirk on her face as she calmly strode towards him.

It irritated him. Just a little bit.

He launched himself at her, leading with a powerful kick – with almost insulting ease, she smoothly ducked under his leg and jabbed the back of his knee with her parasol. With a grin, she opened it up, pushing Mercury off balance and making him stumble backwards. As he tried to regain his equilibrium, she folded the parasol once more and cartwheeled forward, landing a powerful kick to his torso that floored him and sent him skidding across the ground.

 _'Whoever this girl is, they're on a whole different level to those others,'_ Mercury winced as he got to his feet, _'Who the hell is she?'_

His eyes widened as his thoughts went back to something Junior had said in their earlier conversation.

 _"Seems to be the time of year for those."_

Someone else had already approached Junior beforehand. This girl either _was_ that person, or _worked for_ that person - either way, it was something Cinder needed to know about, sooner rather than later.

With a kicking motion, he fired another pair of powered shots – this time at the ground in front of her- and broke into a sprint. She gracefully flipped back to avoid the detonations, but they were never intended to harm her. Landing cleanly, she merely watched silently as he kicked his way out of the nearest window.

* * *

The bewildered Junior dragged himself to his feet, only to see the smiling face of none other than the man who had just left his club not long before.

" _Still_ don't think you need my help?" Roman Torchwick asked his fellow criminal smugly, "And for the record," he added, "If people keep expressing their opinion of your bar by _wrecking_ the place? You _might just_ want to consider some areas for improvement."

Junior glanced around at the wreckage of his bar as he tried to get his bearings. After a few moments, he spoke.

"Fifty-fifty?"

Roman, smirk still in place, nodded and held out his hand.

"You've got a deal, Torchwick," Junior said simply, as he shook it.


	5. A Lull in the Action

**A/N: Team RWBY have been asked about - to tell the truth, the reason they haven't appeared yet is simple that nothing has happened in this story that would change things for them, yet. They will have a significant part to play in the story, though, so don't worry about that!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, it belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Mercury breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like he hadn't been seen on the way in. He could get to Cinder's office, wait there for her, and then take a day or so to rest, and nobody would ever know. His pride was officially still intact -

"What the hell happened to _you?"_

 _'Damn it.'_

Mercury resisted the urge to start shooting as his fellow criminal's voice caught him by surprise. "Emerald," he said after a moment, "We have _got_ to talk about your habit of sneaking up on people before you start every conversation."

"Yeah, yeah," the green-haired thief shrugged off the admonishment, "Whatever. Why do you look like you lost a fight with a Puma?"

Mercury gave a resigned sigh. "Let's call it unexpected... _complications,_ that popped up during my mission."

"Your mission – you mean going to put the screws on that Junior guy?" Emerald asked in disbelief, "You lost a fight to a two-bit thug?"

"No!" He hastily corrected her, " _That_ part went fine. He had some unexpected help show up, though..." he paused, as he considered the potential ramifications of letting Emerald know that he had been knocked around a nightclub like a rag-doll by a little girl with a parasol.

 _"Don't worry, Mercury, I'm sure that little girl had done a lot of working out... those jungle gyms build some serious muscle tone, you know."_

 _"To be fair, Mercury, you really shouldn't have declined that invite to her tea-party."_

 _"Take cover Mercury, that one's in a pram! It might be a drive-by!"_

"There were twenty of them," he said firmly, "And they were all huge."

She gave him a look that clearly said she didn't believe him. "Sure they were."

" _Really_ huge. Now if you don't mind, I've got to go and tell Cinder that I screwed up now."

"Ah," Emerald winced as he walked away, "Dibs on your stuff if she kills you!" She called out helpfully.

"You take my stuff already anyway," Mercury muttered tiredly as he headed for the office of his boss. Bracing himself, he opened the door.

Cinder looked up from a few sheets of paper as he entered. "Ah, Mercury, you're back. And looking somewhat more... _haggard_ , than I expected," she gave him a curious once-over, "Was Junior more troublesome than we assumed he would be?"

"Yeah, about that..." he began hesitantly, "We've got a problem."

* * *

Meanwhile, Roman Torchwick was currently hosting a meeting with Junior, Neo, and the Malachite twins, in one of the private rooms of Junior's club.

"Okay, now I _only_ want to explain this all once," Roman began, "Considering my audience, I fear I _may_ have set my expectations too high, but we'll give it a try and see how we do."

"Can you actually go _two minutes-_ "

"- _Without_ insulting someone?" Melanie and Miltia demanded.

"One and a half is my record," Roman admitted, "Now shut up, you're interrupting the people who know what they're talking about."

He cleared his throat, ignoring their mutinous grumbling.

"Our first problem," he began, " _They_ know where _we_ are. _We_ don't know where _they_ are. The second is fixable, the first, not so much. Unless... Junior, do you have a safe-house at all that you could operate the information business from?"

"One," Junior confirmed, "Yeah. The location of the old bar."

"Then you _might just_ want to start using it," Roman informed him, "Because they're going to come back here in force at some point in the near future."

Junior paled at the thought of the person who had just beaten him and the twins handily coming back with White Fang minions at his back. "Point taken. I can afford to shut the bar down for a few weeks, as long as this is over with by then and I make some money from this."

"Have a little faith," Roman rolled his eyes, "You'll get _everything_ you lose back and more. I guarantee it," he began pacing, "Well, now that little issue has a resolution, let's discuss how we're going go about fixing the problem of 'not knowing where they are'."

"What do you have in mind?" Junior leaned back against the wall.

"Well, it's simple," Roman said, "They're going to peacefully, and willingly, walk me right into their base of operations."

Everybody in the room stared at him. Even Neo had raised an eyebrow.

"And... _why_ , exactly, do you think they are going to do that?" Junior asked slowly.

"Because," Roman looked smug, "I'm a _vital_ informant who can tell them all about your _mysterious backer."_

Neo's face lit up as she figured it out, and she nodded appreciatively.

"But _you're_ our... they haven't seen you yet," Junior finally realised.

"That's right!" Roman gave him a sarcastic round of applause, "They haven't seen me yet. They've only seen you three, and Neo. So we're going to take advantage of this - I pose as someone who can give them the information they want, they then lead me _right_ to their base, I get as much information as humanly possible out of them, and then I get out."

"And how are you going to get them to believe you?" Melanie asked.

"Yeah, I don't know if you noticed, but you're _not_ the most trustworthy-looking guy," Miltia agreed.

"I'm glad you asked, girls!" Roman said cheerfully, "I _do love_ showing off just _how much_ more intelligent I am than anyone else in the room, after all. You see, I'm going to earn a lot of legitimacy with our mysterious enemies when they are forced to intervene... to _save_ me from your backer's _ruthless enforcer_. Ruthless enforcer, take a bow, please."

Neo stepped forward and gave a theatrical bow.

"Okay," Junior acknowledged, "That could really work. But how do you plan on getting out of there?"

Roman gave him an unimpressed look, before pointing at Neo again.

"Oh, right." Junior palmed his forehead in realisation.

"I mean, really," Roman shook his head in disappointment, "She's been the solution to, what, _ninety, ninety-five percent_ of my problems so far? You'd think you would have started to notice the _pattern_ by now."

Neo simply shrugged, smiling.

"Now, while I'm doing that, you," he nodded to Junior, "Need to put out feelers. We need to know about _any_ big dust deliveries that are coming into Vale in the next few weeks. There's more Police on the streets now, making the little jobs riskier, so chances are? They're going to need to go for bigger hauls if they have some kind of target to meet. If we know _what_ they're going for, _where_ it's going to be and _when_ it's going to be there, it will be a lot easier to sabotage them when they try to _take_ it."

"Makes sense," Junior nodded, "I'll see what I can find out."

"What about us?" Miltia asked.

"You two," Roman informed her bluntly, "Are going to learn how to _win a fight_. That's twice in a few days you've been beaten, quite quickly too, if what I've heard is any indication. If you're going to start pulling your weight around here, you need to be able to beat up something better than a random henchman."

"Oh, _really?_ And how do we do that?" Melanie retorted, slightly annoyed at the insult to their skills.

"Why, the best way to become a better fighter... is to learn from a great teacher, of course," Roman answered with a smirk.

"Great teacher? What do you..." Miltia trailed off as she and Melanie went pale.

Roman glanced at the impressively evil grin on Neo's face, and reflected that this may actually have been the first time in his life that he felt genuine sympathy for another human being.

"Miltia?"

"Yes, Melanie?"

"At least we're going to die together," The trembling Melanie whispered.

"The way we always said we would," Miltia agreed weakly.

* * *

"So at that point, I decided to get out of there and get back to you with the information," Mercury finished.

An oppressive silence reigned for what seemed to Mercury like an age, as Cinder thought over what he had told her.

"You made the correct decision," she finally said, "In placing priority on bringing this information directly to me. Well done."

Mercury breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"A new element... this is not what we need right now, and yet, it would also explain a few things," she mused, "Adam _did_ seem very surprised that his assassin failed to kill those men."

"You think these guys had something to do with that?" Mercury asked in surprise.

"It's a possibility," she replied, "This girl is particularly troubling. The shattering effect you described sounds like a semblance, and the fact that she was able to decisively overcome you the way she did speaks for her skill."

"So... who do you think they are?" He asked.

She seemed to mull it over. "We don't have enough information to even guess. Our _next_ priority is fixing that," she looked at him, "Go and get some rest, Mercury. We will need you at full strength, soon enough."

"Sure thing," he said in relief.

After Mercury had gone, Cinder pondered what to do about this new problem. At the very least, they'd need to go back to the club as soon as possible – examples had to be made, after all.

She got to her feet, and left the office. She needed to find Adam.

After all, if there was anything the White Fang would appreciate, it would be the opportunity to commit some wanton violence and property damage.


	6. A Plot is Hatched

**A/N: Bit of a later update, sorry. Distracted myself a bit too much over the last few days.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't RWBY, Rooster Teeth owns RWBY.**

* * *

The streets surrounding Junior's club had been extraordinarily busy over the last week and a half, and tonight was no exception. A relatively large group moved through the shadows, their destination, of course, the Club itself.

This group of thirty White Fang recruits, mixed in with some of the more experienced members, was led by one of the White Fang's oldest veterans – a huge, hulking Faunus. His actual name was unknown to most, but due to his position in between the leadership of the group and the recruits, he was generally known and referred to as the Lieutenant – despite the White Fang not actually having official military ranks.

It honestly amazed most of the recruits that he was able to move quietly at all, considering his build and his extreme choice of weapon – a chainsaw - but most supposed that it was simply a skill borne of experience and didn't question it further.

They stopped, close to the entrance.

"All right, brother, sisters. You know what we're here for – this club is harbouring enemies of the White Fang, enemies who may have had a hand in the death of one of our own. We're going to go in there, and make an example of them." The cold baritone of the Lieutenant never failed to send shivers down the spines of anyone who heard him speak. His voice was regarded as one of the most terrifying things about him, a legitimately impressive feat considering the competition.

He eyed the group. "We will probably face some resistance. I want one left alive for questioning, kill any others. And remember, if the little girl with the umbrella or the bar owner with the missile launcher appear, you leave them to me."

A round of nods.

"Good," he grunted, "Move in."

The first thing they noticed was that their entrance wasn't contested. Most didn't know what to think, but to the White Fang Lieutenant, it meant one of two things: either they were laying a trap, or the place was empty.

"Careful," he muttered as they made their way up the entryway – him leading the way as he knew he could take the hit from any ambush. His aura defences were extraordinarily good.

They reached the door that lead into the club proper. He waited for his best to gather at the front, then nodded, before kicking down the door.

They immediately noticed that the place was half-empty – even a significant amount of equipment was now missing, probably all of the most valuable things they could fit into a van or three.

"Keep your eyes and ears sharp," he commanded as they made their way toward the dance floor. When nothing happened, even when they reached the centre, he motioned for them to stop.

"Sir? What do we do?" one of the braver recruits asked.

He looked around. "Pay attention, recruits. _This_ ," he motioned around him, "This is how you differentiate a professional criminal from a professional soldier. They've bugged out. They've apparently taken a lot of the most expensive equipment with them. It's only been just over two days since our ally was here, which speaks for impressive ability on their part to relocate, but if they were soldiers," he shook his head, "They would have left their equipment behind and used that time to rig this place with traps. Spread out. Destroy whatever is left, and render this place as unusable as you can. Braith," he looked at one of the troopers.

"Yes, sir?"

"Take your squad and search any private rooms. In particular, I want any paperwork you can find. It's unlikely it will be here, but," he looked around, "This was quite the rush job. They may have left something behind."

"Sir."

Most of the White Fang began destroying everything in sight. "Disappointing," the Lieutenant muttered to himself, "That I won't be able to face any of our enemies tonight."

Still, a job was a job, and he had not gotten as far as he had in the White Fang by grumbling about his missions. With a growl, he revved up his chainsaw, and cleaved straight through the bar.

 _\- Two Days Later -_

The shrill sound of a whistle blowing echoed through the practice room, making Roman wince. That sound had _quickly_ gotten annoying.

"...!"

"She says 'do it again, twenty times, maggot'."

If asked, Roman would admit that he was finding the whole 'Neo training Junior's minion twins' far less entertaining than he originally thought it would be.

Of course, watching them struggle as they were put through their paces was amusing enough at first – the problem was that he was forced to take part as Neo's interpreter, until they found an effective means of communication for her.

Melanie groaned as she started the routine. "I thought you'd be teaching us how to _fight_. All you've done so far is teach me how to do this break-dancing crap."

"...!" Neo glared at her. Roman still couldn't quite wrap his head around how she had managed to find a set of green drill-sergeant fatigues for her size, or why she was wearing them, but he was somewhat inured to his partner-in-crime's oddities by now, and so, shrugged it off.

"She says 'When you fought Mercury, he was able to keep you at bay just by threatening to knock your feet out from under you. If you had options once you hit the ground, you both would have been able to rush him and maybe even win the fight. This is the quickest way to teach you balance on the ground, Private. So stop asking questions that prove how stupid you are and do what she says."

Neo shot him a look. "..."

"Okay, so the last sentence _may_ have been open to interpretation. Give me a break, here, _Sarge_ , I need to amuse myself somehow."

"There's no way she said all that," Miltia said in disbelief as she continued with her own practice.

"When you spend your life not talking, you can get _very_ good at expressing yourself in other ways, girlie," Roman snorted, "To anyone who really knows how to read body language, Neo can practically sing."

The first thing Neo had done was have the pair go over their fight with Mercury in as much detail as possible, before going over the entire thing with a fine-toothed comb to pick out areas for improvement.

She'd found them. A lot of them. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to rectify everything, so she was focusing on the most efficient ways to give them short-term gain.

"...!"

"Also, she says 'and you can drop and give me twenty for the sass, soldier'."

"I'm not a soldier," Miltia muttered miserably as she began doing another round of push-ups.

Melanie had an obvious weakness: she was entirely dependant on staying on her feet. The obvious _solution_ had been provided by their foe; teach her how to fight on the ground. This would give her far more options defensively and offensively. Break-dancing, particularly parts that involved balancing on her hands, back, or even head, would provide the basis for her to expand her fighting style.

Miltia was a bit more unclear, but Neo had eventually decided that what she needed more than anything was more physical power and durability. Neither of the pair could really take hits, preferring to focus on dodging, but the problem with this was that dodging required that you be either faster, or significantly more skilled, than your opponent.

Against the likes of Mercury, they were neither.

So having one of them be able to tank a decent amount of damage would give them a lot more options, particularly in pinning down an opponent and setting up joint attacks. And speaking of attacks, Miltia needed more striking power. She only managed a few hits against Mercury and doing so had little to do with speed – if you're not going to hit your opponent often, you needed to make the hits you do land count.

Which was why, in addition to her physical exercises, Miltia was also tasked with trying to slice her way through gradually more durable objects and materials. She was currently trying a stone block.

Neo had made it clear to him that the improvements they could make here would not be huge, however, and would still take time. When he asked if there were any ways to get them a bigger boost, her only suggestion was for the girls to discover their semblances – however, despite her many talents, Neo was not an academic trained in the intricacies of aura, so she had no idea whatsoever how to go about bringing out another person's semblance. As far as she knew, most people discovered it on their own while training.

His musings were interrupted by one of Junior's men, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, carrying in a large blackboard. One of the first things Roman had made clear was that Junior's men were not to go anywhere or do anything in uniform any more. They'd get picked up by the White Fang and their backers in a heartbeat and that could be disastrous.

"Thank god," he praised, "It's about damn time."

Why it had taken them so long to find Neo something large to write on was beyond him, but he was glad it was finally here, as it meant he no longer had to play interpretor and could more effectively focus his time on other areas – like planning.

"Well, now that you have your own way of communicating your displeasure to these two unfortunate souls, I'm going to take my leave," he informed Neo as he exited the room, "Have fun, and do what you're told, girls!" he gave one last parting shot over his shoulder.

"Hate you!" came the almost identical tired groan in response, before another blow of the whistle shut them up.

He mused about the latest developments in their little private war. The White Fang had reacted even quicker than he had expected – while none of his group had gone back to the Club, since the White Fang would surely be looking out for them there, they new from the grapevine that the place had been ransacked. Junior, despite knowing it was coming, was quite upset, even with them managing to get most of the most valuable stuff out of there – the booze, most of the electronics, the paperwork, etc.

Roman didn't quite get why he was so attached to the place. Junior simply told him that he wouldn't understand what it meant to have your hard work destroyed by some Faunus nutjobs. Roman privately agreed with the man – after all, he had never done any hard work in his life.

He turned his thoughts away from the recent past, and towards the future, particularly, his plan to find the enemy's base of operations. He was under no impression that doing so would be particularly easy - the fact that he was putting his own life in danger ensured the stakes were sufficiently high, even for him. He needed to handle it carefully – dripping out information about a possible defector here and there, not enough to arouse the suspicion of a cynic, but enough to gain the interest of an enemy. This would require time and patience, and while they felt they had about enough of the former, the latter was a virtue.

Being a man with no virtues whatsoever, he knew that would be the most annoying part.

There was also the question of what to actually do with that information once he had it. Raiding the place was foolish. They had neither the manpower or the brute force to attack the White Fang directly. However... there _were_ other groups that _did_ , and didn't like the White Fang any more than he did.

"And as I always said," he muttered thoughtfully, "The enemy of my enemy... is the guy I throw in front of the bullets."


	7. A Rumour is Spread

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. Rooster Teeth own RWBY.**

* * *

"Basically, it's getting harder and harder to get what we need from smaller stashes," Emerald finished her report with a frown, "With the increased police presence? It's becoming too much risk for too little gain."

"What if one of us, or one of the White Fang's top fighters accompany the heists?" Mercury asked.

"No, I wouldn't recommend it," Emerald shook her head, "That's just begging for retaliation from Beacon."

Cinder drummed her fingers on the table as she mulled over their options. They could continue the small-scale heists to try and pull in as much as possible – which risked them losing manpower from the White Fang to the police – or...

"We need to cut back on all small-scale robberies," she decided, "That will ease the attention that we're getting. Emerald," she looked at the green-haired thief.

"Yes, Cinder?" Cinder resisted the urge to smile at how constantly eager the girl was to please her. That kind of single-minded devotion was very useful to have, especially when combined with the more conventional skills that Emerald brought to the table.

"I need you to find out about any large-scale dust deliveries that are happening," Cinder instructed her, "I'll get you in touch with our inside men at Atlas and the Schnee Dust Company. We need to take what we need to make the explosives in one large operation."

"I've got it," Emerald nodded.

"Don't spend all of your time doing that, however," Cinder added, "I need you on standby for action in case we gain the information we need to bring down the local crime element we've been having such... _trouble_ , with. And on that note, Mercury, how goes your investigation?"

"Junior's organisation has gone to ground completely," Mercury reported, "As you know, the White Fang raided the club's location only to find nothing of value," he paused, then added, "At least, not to us. Since then, there has been no indication of where they are or what they're doing."

"Hmm..." Cinder leaned back, "Have you any theories on how they were able to vanish so quickly?"

"A few," he admitted, "But they're only theories, so don't take any of this as a certainty yet. The first option," he began to list them off, "And the one we initially assumed, is that they have some kind of powerful backer who was able to help them vanish."

"You don't sound convinced," Cinder noted.

"Not yet," he agreed, "Admittedly, though, it _seems_ like the most likely option. Now, the second option is worse - they knew when we were coming."

Her eyes narrowed as she considered the possibility. "Do you think that is the case?"

"No," he shook his head, "Nobody within the organisation would have anything to gain from betraying us to a bunch of criminals. We all know the stakes," he indicated himself, Cinder and Emerald, "And the White Fang are fanatics to a cause, not average criminals."

"There've been defectors from the White Fang in the past," Emerald pointed out, "I heard from some of the goons that Taurus' friend and protégé was one of them."

Cinder made a mental note to look into that particular tid-bit at some point.

"True," Mercury admitted, "But the people who defect from the White Fang tend to do it because of their conscience, not their bank balance. If they defect, they'll usually either try to lie low and avoid attention, or go to the Law."

"Sound reasoning," Cinder nodded, "However, I still wish to be certain that we do not have a traitor in the ranks. I will need to find a way to broach the subject with Adam."

"Good luck with that," Mercury snorted, "Now, option three is simple; they really were paranoid and ready to cut and run at a moment's notice, and my visit to the club provided the notice. It's definitely possible," he frowned, "The only problem is that girl who intervened in the club. She seemed too competent for a petty crook."

"Girl?" Emerald smirked, "I thought there were 'twenty of them'."

He winced. "Ah, crap."

"Very well," Cinder interrupted them before they could start bantering again, "Continue your search, Mercury. Let me know the moment you find anything. Now get back to work," she got up, "I need to see Adam."

* * *

 _\- One week later -_

"I'm just saying it sucks, man. That place was my favourite club."

As his friend bitterly complained, a casually-dressed man took a drag from his cigarette. "Yeah, but you know what happened to the place. It got trashed, like, _three times_ in a row. Maybe it's better if they shut down for a while."

His friend sighed. "... yeah, maybe you're right. I was there the first time, you know? This blonde haired chick came in and just started busting the place up. It was pretty dangerous."

"You missed the important part there, man. Was she a looker?"

"Too young for us," the first man shook his head, "So you know a few people who work for Junior, right?"

"Yeah," he confirmed, "Can't really get hold of any of them now, though."

"Do you know what's up? Why was the place getting wrecked?"

"Well," he paused, then lowered his voice to a whisper, "They picked a fight with the White Fang."

He saw his friend's eyes widen. "No _way!_ Are they _nuts?"_

"Maybe," he nodded, "Last I heard from my friends? Not all of them are happy about it, either."

"Yeah, I wouldn't be too," the first man shook his head in disbelief.

This was one of several similar conversations that were taking place throughout Vale over the course of the week. Soon, the rumour would be out there - at least, for anyone who was actively looking for it.

* * *

 _\- A week later -_

"We might have an in on our criminal friends," Mercury said as he poked his head through the door.

If there was a sure-fire way to get Cinder Fall's attention, that was it. She looked up from her scroll. "Oh?"

"It's just rumours at the moment," Mercury clarified, "But it seems there may be some... _dissension_ , in the ranks."

"Indeed?" She smiled, "One of my _favourite_ things... as long as it's happening to my enemies, of course."

"I'm sure," Mercury chuckled, "It's going to be tough to verify it any time soon, though."

Cinder's eyes narrowed in thought. "No," she said after a moment, "Perhaps it won't."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I want you to... _put the word out_ , as it were," she began, "That if anyone comes to us with information that will lead us to these people, and whoever is helping them, not only will their safety be guaranteed, but they will also be rewarded, handsomely."

He nodded. "Huh. Clever. If there is some discontent among them, they'll take you up on that, and if there's not, you'll have created some anyway when they all think about it," he smirked in approval. "I suppose we shouldn't expect anything less from you, should we?

"No," she agreed delicately, "You shouldn't."

"Well, I'll get right on it," he said, "Any luck with Taurus?"

She sighed. "He would not even consider the possibility that one of his own was a double-agent. It seemed to be something of a _touchy subject_ to him." Which was why she was currently looking into the supposed friend/protégé. It hadn't been difficult to get a name out of one of the less intelligent White Fang members, and looking it up had instantly lead her to Beacon's newest intake of first-year students. While not of much importance now, it was something she may have been able to use against Adam later if need be.

"Well, no offence, but," Mercury said as he left, "Better you than me."

* * *

 _– Two days later -_

Roman grinned. It had taken him a good week or so, a bit of bribery, a lot of alcohol and a small amount of violence, but he finally had the contact information that he needed. While he did, of course, intend to call in the cops once he had the location, there was only one person in Vale who had the kind of fire-power at their disposal to cause the sort of trouble Roman needed to happen.

From: whistleblower3214

To: thebigcheese .vl

Subject: Keeping the peace

Message:

How would you like to bring down your local, vocal and uncommonly fluffy terrorist organisation? Respond if the answer is 'yes', and I might just be able to get you the location of the White Fang's base of operations. As proof of my honest intentions, here's some interesting information I have collected on their group, and their new, unusual friends...

* * *

The recipient of the email hummed thoughtfully as he read through the attached file.

"You wanted to see me?" his musings were interrupted by the entry of his deputy.

"Glynda," Ozpin greeted her, "First of all, I'd like you to take a look at this," he handed her the scroll, "And I'd like to hear your thoughts."

With a curious frown, she took it and started reading. Her frown became more pronounced as she flicked through the Email's few lines and reached the end of the attached information.

After a moment, she looked back at him. "My first thought was that it's a trap. My _second_ thought, however..."

"Yes," Ozpin agreed, "My reaction was much the same. The information on this 'Mercury' is quite in-depth – particularly on how he fights."

"And the only way they would know that is if they fought alongside him and were giving him up, or if they'd fought against him," Glynda shook her head, "Assuming that this information is correct, of course. This woman they described as the ringleader also sounds _remarkably_ similar to the woman I fought the night we met Ruby. What are you thinking, Ozpin?"

Ozpin took a sip from his cup, deep in thought.

"Whether it is an actual defector, a false alarm, or even merely one of the White Fang's enemies wanting us to do their work for them, it is not something we can completely ignore. I would like to ask you a favour," Ozpin said to her.

She sighed. "You want me to lead a mission if they give us the information."

"As sharp as ever," Ozpin complimented, "If we do obtain a location from this mysterious individual, I would like the team we send to investigate to be led by someone I _know_ can get them out of any trap."

"I fear your confidence in me may be somewhat exaggerated," Glynda said frankly, "While I am confident in my own skills, I am not sure I could effectively cover for a team as well in a situation like what you would be describing."

"I believe the team I have in mind should ease your worries somewhat," Ozpin leaned forward, "They are, after all, one of the most talented teams we've had in a long time, and as one particular member has... something of a personal stake in this matter, as I'm sure you know, so I'm sure they will be eager to take the mission."

Glynda frowned. "You mean..." she then nodded in approval, "Yes, that should be sufficient. They are an extraordinarily capable combat team."

"Excellent," Ozpin smiled, "I will make the arrangements, and see if I can get more from our mysterious whistle-blower. In particular, I'm curious as to how they managed to get hold of my private email address."

"Yes, about that," Glynda rubbed her forehead in a long-suffering gesture, "The Big Cheese? _Really?"_

* * *

It had been around two weeks since they'd spread the rumour about their in-house problems, and Junior had news.

"So, that's the deal," Junior informed the group, "A big reward and guaranteed safety for anyone who can give us up."

Roman leaned back, deep in thought. "That's the opportunity I needed."

"...?" Neo tilted her head.

"Yeah, I'd say it is. Now, we need a plan. First of all, we need them to notice the disturbance, quickly."

"Simple enough," Junior grunted, "They're watching the club, right? Start the chase there."

Roman stared at him in amazement. "Did you just have a _good idea?"_

He ignored the glare he got in return. "Well then, that's a good start. Now, Neo," he turned to the linchpin of his plan (and practically every plan he had, really), "You need to have your scroll handy. Once they've 'rescued me' from you, and they take me back to their location, you need to follow us, unseen. Once we stop, you need to send that location to the address I'll give you. That will call in both our attack plan, and the cops. You can sneak in amongst the confusion and get me out before it's over."

She nodded.

"Now, I still need to set a couple of things up..."

* * *

"This will be a dangerous mission, but you are one of the top combat teams in the school at the moment, and I have faith that your skills will be equal to the challenge. However, I will ask you to bear in mind that it will not be the creatures of Grimm that you face, but other people, just like you and me," Ozpin said gravely, "That said, if any of you feel that you do not wish to take part in this mission, I will not force you. There is no shame in turning this down."

Three sets of eyes locked onto one particular member of the team. "You're the one with a bone to pick with the White Fang. It's your call."

The girl, usually very quiet and withdrawn, looked unusually determined. "I want to do it."

Ozpin smiled in approval. "Yes... I thought you would say that. Now, for the next couple of weeks, you will be required to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. In the field, you must follow Professor Goodwitch's orders to the letter – they may mean the difference between life and death. And one last thing..." they all looked at him, "It is a brave thing you are doing, here. I am glad to call you all my students."

* * *

Roman took a drag from his cigar. After several weeks of planning, preparation, scheming and plotting, they were finally ready to get started. He and Neo were hidden in an alley, close to the location of what was once Junior's club.

Now came the really uncomfortable part. He turned to Neo.

"Well, Neo," he took a deep breath, "Time to get started. I know I'm a _wonderful_ guy and all, but do _try_ to make it look realistic, won't you?"

Judging by the savage grin that lit up her face as she cracked her knuckles, he somehow doubted that was going to be a problem.


	8. A Plan Goes Wrong

**Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. I own nothing but the laptop I typed this on.**

* * *

It had been a boring couple of weeks for the White Fang observers keeping an eye on the area around Junior's former club. They had been tasked to keep an eye out for anyone who may be a part of the organisation showing back up at their former stomping grounds – which thus far had amounted to absolutely nobody. It was fantastically boring, and both found themselves wishing something exciting would happen regularly.

Their prayers were answered now – as a loud explosion rang out across the streets and alleys. Both stared in shock as a man in a white coat furiously ran into view – and were even more surprised when one of their priority targets stepped into view, pursuing him.

The first dived for the phone to call it in, as the second tried to follow the proceedings as much as possible.

"Command, we've got a priority target, designation 'Rainbow' in sight, pursuing and engaging an unknown man in a white coat and a black hat," the first member said into the phone. He listened to the reply, then briefly looked up to observe the fight.

* * *

"Gah!" Roman grunted as he was sent tumbling to the ground again. Desperately rolling to his left to avoid a kick, he tried to strike out with his cane – hitting nothing but air. He pulled himself to his feet, and warily eyed Neo – who wasn't pulling her punches _at all_.

Before he even had time to make an annoying quip, she was on him again – he frantically parried the first three blows with his cane, but the fourth slipped through and hit him clean in the gut – knocking him back and having the joint effect of doubling him over. His cane snapped up and fired off a shot, but Neo's ever-ubiquitous parasol unfolded in time to block it, his explosive round scattering harmlessly off the sides.

She shifted her parasol to sit against her shoulder and gave him a superior, and surprisingly chilling, smile. He tried to take the opportunity to shoot her again

He was immensely surprised when his shot actually connected with her body. Surprise quickly turned to a mixture of annoyance and dread when he heard the all-too-familiar sound of shattering glass, and Neo's image disappeared.

 _'Where is she?'_ he frantically looked around – and noticed the growing shadow at his feet, barely in time to stumble back out of the way.

The tip of Neo's parasol smashed into the ground, stabbing deep into the concrete surface and cracking up the road.

 _'That could have killed me!'_ Roman thought, sweating, ' _R_ _egretting this plan now!_ _REALLY_ _regretting-'_ his reconsideration was cut short, by the sole of a boot that had suddenly taken up residence on his face.

* * *

"...Yeah, she's definitely trying to kill him," the White Fang grunt confirmed, "You, er, may want to hurry. I can't see this lasting very long."

* * *

"Boss! We've got activity at the club, priority target 'Rainbow' is currently trying to kill a man in a white coat," one of the minions who handled communications poked his head into Cinder's office.

Her eyes narrowed. Then she stood up. "Mercury, Emerald," she spoke to the pair, "We will intervene. Get a bullhead up and running."

* * *

Roman attempted to stay on the defensive. He knew Neo well enough to know that taking the offensive against her was a near-enough guaranteed method to get a foot planted on your face, and he had already been re-introduced to that particular experience too many times tonight for his liking.

She began advancing on him, the stride every bit as controlled and graceful as anything else she did in a fight. He back-pedalled slightly, trying to keep his distance as much as possible, when she suddenly burst into action again. She shot forward, ducking neatly under the backhanded swing of his cane.

Which was exactly what he had expected her to do. While Roman was certainly no match for Neo in a straight fight, something which he was actively banking on, here, he _had_ seen her fight enough times to know what her most common responses to certain movements and actions were. Her surprised face met his rising knee with satisfying force, and she found herself stumbling back from the hit.

He almost began laughing in celebration of this minor victory. That idea was quickly cut short when he saw the _results_ of his clever move.

Neo stared blankly at him. Each steadily narrowing eye was now a solid shade of pink – not a combination he ever recalled seeing before. He sighed in resignation.

"Well, sh-" was all he managed to get out before the once-again folded parasol collided solidly with his face, yet again.

* * *

"We are almost there," Cinder announced from the cockpit, "Get ready to jump."

"Yes Ma'am!" Emerald replied.

"Got it," Mercury nodded.

The Bullhead's side doors opened.

* * *

Roman, once again, found himself contemplating the cost-to-benefit ratio of the plan he had cooked up as Neo planted him into the wall.

Now lacking the energy to try and fight back, he merely slumped down against the now quite damaged surface.

Neo strode steadily toward him, holding her parasol out horizontally in both hands. She then began to pull it apart – drawing the hidden blade within loose.

 _'_ _You know,_ _I_ _completely_ _forgot she had that,'_ Roman thought distantly, _'Huh.'_

She held the blade aloft with a savage grin. However, before she could swing it down, she suddenly looked up in surprise and re-inserted the sword, before deflecting some surprisingly accurate gunfire.

Roman recognised one of the pair that had dropped out of the sky – it was the same Mercury guy who had smashed up Junior's club, the second time around. The green-haired, dark-skinned girl with him was a new face, however.

"Well, well," Mercury smirked, "Looks like I get a rematch with you sooner than I thought, don't I?"

The other girl raised an eyebrow. "So this is the girl that kicked your ass in the club?"

His smirk disappeared. "Yes, Emerald, this is the girl that _got the drop on me_ in the club. This time, things are going to go a bit differently."

In response, Neo raised her palm and made a gesture with her hand that really couldn't be interpreted as anything other than 'bring it'.

Mercury obliged. He shot forward like a rocket, leading with a blisteringly fast kick – Neo danced around it, her palm catching the back of his calf and lifting it up in a quick, but smooth motion. Mercury instantly lost his balance and tumbled over. To his credit, he recovered immediately, leaping up onto his feet into a fighting stance.

The new girl, Emerald, snickered. "Must have been quite the drop if she's still got it on you now."

Mercury scowled. "Oh, just shut up and we'll attack her together."

The pair charged at Neo from opposing directions. The girl quickly glanced between the two, and made a split-second decision. Opening her parasol, she held it in her left hand to block Mercury's kick, while her right hand drew the hidden sword from it and parried three attacks from Emerald's exotic-looking weapons – a pair of sickles.

Neo began back-pedalling, putting the two in front of her, parasol in her left hand held aloft like a shield and her sword in her right as she frantically blocked or deflected the barrage of attacks they unleashed upon her. The pair, despite their mocking banter, obviously worked very well together as fighters, and for the first time since he had met her, Neo was actively having visible difficulty stopping or deflecting all of their attacks.

Suddenly, Neo changed tactics. With a quick flourish, her sword rejoined her parasol and she held it open as she charged Emerald. Emerald, startled by the change of pace, was taken off-guard as Neo ran up onto her shoulders, spinning and flipping to disorientate her before grabbing her opponent's head with her legs – before throwing her with a strong flip. Emerald let out a startled cry as she flew towards the wall.

Mercury, having been unable to properly attack while the girl was on his comrade, moved the moment she was free – leaping into a blisteringly fast series of aerial kicks, that Neo blocked with her open parasol, being forced back in the process. She cartwheeled backwards to avoid a kick at head height, before using her folded parasol to parry another series of kicks.

Her eyes widened, and she unfolded her parasol to block a hail of gunfire from Emerald, who re-entered the fight with a vengeance. She charged at Neo, who was prepared to meet her – but that wasn't Emerald's intention. She stopped a few metres short, and swung, her bladed weapon extending outward on a chain and heading directly for Neo's face.

Surprised, Neo couldn't dodge the blow entirely, and her head turned to the side as the blade collided with her – aura prevented it from cutting, but it wouldn't do that for every hit.

Emerald pressed her new advantage, moving forward and swinging both chain-sickles in a controlled series of attacks that Neo was forced to frantically duck, jump, lean and cartwheel to avoid. Her situation was made worse by the shots flying in her direction from Mercury – which she also had to deflect or avoid, with less success. She took several hits as she was forced back towards the wall. When Emerald saw that her opponent had no further space to move back, she grinned in triumph as she swung again.

Neo's eyes narrowed as she took in the situation – then, suddenly, she smirked. In a flash, her sword was out of the sheath once more. As she ducked under the first swing, the thin blade lashed out, stabbing deeply into the wall – through one of the chain-links. Emerald's turning momentum jerked to a halt as the chain caught on the blade and hit its maximum length. Growling, she swung again with the second weapon, this one lower – Neo ran up the wall to avoid this one, flipping over, and, in an impressive display of acrobatic skill, grabbed the blade of Emerald's trapped weapon and pinned the other chain to the wall with it, as well, before landing on one knee.

"Damn!" Emerald hissed as she tried to pull her weapons free. Neo, seeing her opportunity, charged at the other girl, hoping to remove her from the fight as quickly as possible while she was unarmed. Mercury tried to stop her with a few well-placed shots, but found them blocked by the now-familiar defence that was her parasol. Emerald's eyes widened as her enemy closed in, but she was still unable to pull her weapons free.

She had just let them go and started to jump away when Neo was intercepted by a fireball. She intercepted it with her parasol, but unlike the gunfire of Mercury and Emerald, the force of the attack knocked her flying back towards the wall.

"That's enough," all eyes, including Roman's, looked up at the hovering drop-ship, where a black-haired young woman stood in the open side-door, glowing hand held aloft.

"Cinder!" Emerald cried in jubilation.

 _'Cinder'_ , Roman thought, _'So that's your name.'_

Neo, looking concerned, took in the situation. Mercury and Emerald were still on the field, and this new combatant apparently had some serious punch. Making her decision, she dashed back towards her sword, diving away from another fireball, and yanked it out of the wall, before disappearing in a blue flash.

Mercury and Emerald stopped to catch their breath.

"Damn it," Mercury groaned, "How the hell is one little girl so damn tough?"

"I'm sure our new _friend_ here will be able to tell us," the new arrival replied with a narrow smile, "Get him into the Bullhead. We'll treat him for his injuries back at the base."

 _'First part of the plan is working',_ Roman thought to himself, shortly before passing out, _'But if this is what winning feels like, I think after this I'm gonna take up losing.'_

* * *

Neo watched, hidden, as the dropship flew off. Really, how Roman expected her to be able to follow it on foot or even in a road vehicle was quite stupid. Fortunately, she _wasn't_ stupid, so she had come prepared.

She eyed her scroll, which currently had a map of Vale and the surrounding area open – her attention was focused entirely on the small, bleeping dot that signified the tracking device she had hidden on Roman's person before they started fighting.

She winced a little as she massaged her upper arm – she had taken a lot more hits in that fight than she was used to. She knew she could have taken either of those two on their own, but together, they managed to cause her a lot of trouble, and neither had even utilised a semblance – as far as she could tell, at least.

Then that woman throwing the fireballs around – Neo knew she couldn't have fought her _alone_ , never mind with the underlings backing her up. She hoped Roman had arranged for some serious fire-power to raid the base, or they were in real trouble.

She waited until the dot stopped moving – in one of the abandoned warehouses in the old industrial district. She zoomed in on the address, took the details, and sent it off in an email to the bizarre email address that Roman had previously given her, before setting out herself.

* * *

Ozpin blinked as he received a new email from the whistle blower. He scanned over the address, and immediately called Glynda.

"Yes, Ozpin?" her voice asked over the phone.

"We have a location," he informed her, "Ready your team and get ready to move out."

"I see," she nodded, "I will find them immediately."

* * *

Roman stirred. Everything still ached, but he was feeling a lot better than he had before Neo had worked him over. _'Sheesh. I really should watch what I tell that girl_ _to do_ _.'_

He scanned his immediate surroundings, trying to get a feel for where he was and how long he'd been out, and was dismayed to find that he was in a cell.

"Ah, good. You're awake," a sultry, female voice spoke from nearby. Roman's eyes raised to see his 'saviour' – and resisted the urge to wolf-whistle.

 _'Junior, you've been wrong about a lot of things in your life,'_ he thought appreciatively, _'This is not one of them.'_

"Yeah," he cracked his neck, "Thanks to you, I guess, beautiful. When you put the word out that you'd guarantee my safety if I came forward, I wasn't expecting you to deliver _this_ quickly."

She smiled. "I do pride myself on being efficient. Of course, my motives aren't entirely selfless... I _do_ wish to ask you a few _little_ _questions_."

"Sure," he nodded, "Cinder, was it? I think I heard the green-haired girl shout that before I passed out."

"Yes," she nodded, "My name is Cinder Fall, and I am working on something... _spectacular_. For which, I have been recruiting talented individuals and groups to assist me... however, as you may know," her smile became decidedly less friendly, "There are disruptive elements within the city that have worked against me. It is, as you can imagine, in my best interest to find these elements, and... _deal_ with them." The last sentence was accompanied by a fireball lighting up in her palm. The gesture made Roman more nervous than he would care to admit.

"Yeah, yeah, Junior's bunch of ne'erdowells, and the people backing them, right? You want to know all about them, don't you?" he asked.

"Actually," she corrected him, "I have a _different_ question for you."

He blinked. "And what's that?"

Her smile turned savage. "Did you _really_ think you were the _only_ one to take us up on our little offer?" She clicked her fingers.

A man walked in, flanked by a pair of White Fang minions. A man he recognised.

One of Junior's men. He even had the nerve to shoot Roman an apologetic look.

If Roman's heart had gone any higher at that moment, it would have been wearing his hat. _'Oh, you little_ _rat_ _bastard_ _traitor_ _.'_

"Li here was quite content to tell us all about you... _Roman,_ " Cinder continued, "You know, I'm actually disappointed. I had hoped that the mysterious enemy attempting to foil my plans truly was a part of something _bigger_ , something _challenging_..." she gave him a disdainful look, "Instead, it was merely a petty crook, carried by the competence of his underachieving companion. How pathetic."

He sighed. No point hiding anything now. "Well, that's not the worst reason for an attractive woman to tell you you're disappointing, I suppose."

She rolled her eyes. "Cute."

"Not particularly something I'd want to hear from an attractive woman, either," he interrupted her before she could continue, "So _what_ are we going to do now?"

"We? Well, you are going to wait in here," she waved around the cell, "Then, when your little friends come to raid the base to rescue you, we will take them as well. After that, we will have no opposition, aside from those fools in the Police and at Beacon, and they won't have any _idea_ what will hit them until it's too late. Your entire little gamble here was for _nothing_."

"We know where your base is now," Roman pointed out, "Which was the main reason for this little escapade in the first place."

"No," she gave a quiet giggle, "You don't. Did you really think we'd lead you to our main headquarters? This is merely a side-base we had prepared in case we required it."

He winced. "Well... damn. There goes that part of the plan."

"No concern for your _friends?_ I suppose as an honour-less thief, you wouldn't feel particularly bad about leading your comrades into an ambush, even inadvertently, would you?"

"On the contrary," he corrected her, "If you catch the rest of us in an ambush here, I'll be _very_ disappointed."

"Oh?" she indulged him.

"Not out of any particular loyalty or friendship, or anything like that," he clarified, "It's just, if they turn up _here_ , it would be _completely_ against the plan."

Before she could ask him what he meant by that, a loud crashing noise rumbled through the base.

"Since we seem to be in the business of correcting misconceptions at the moment," he smirked, and decided to try and get the last word, "I don't know _who_ it was that just knocked down your front door... but I _seriously_ doubt they're any friends of mine."

* * *

 **A/N: I'm aware that Emerald's weapons are called Kusarigama - but Roman wasn't.**


	9. A Caffeine Overdose

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. It belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Outside a large, supposedly abandoned warehouse, four people waited silently for the return of their team-mate.

"I'm going to be honest, here," muttered the (though Glynda would never admit it out loud) ever stylish team leader of team CFVY, Coco Adel, "That doesn't look like the headquarters of anything, to me."

"Agreed," the green-clad Yatsuhashi Daichi, his rather large size not quite lending itself to staying hidden, nodded from his position further back, "But if we have reliable intelligence, presumably looks are deceiving."

Glynda felt the urge to point out that, while they had intelligence, calling it 'reliable' wasn't exactly a guarantee. Any statement she may have made to that effect was cut off by the reappearance of their last team-mate.

Dark-skinned, covered in scars, and, oddly for a Hunter, completely blind, she privately had a lot of respect for Fox Alistair, believing him to be a fine example of how with enough hard work, a potential hunter or huntress could overcome _any_ obstacle. She endeavoured not to voice these sentiments, however – primarily because he would not have appreciated them. He had made it clear upon his entry to Beacon that he did not wish to be coddled due to his disability.

"Mr Alistair," she acknowledged his appearance, "What did you find?"

"I'd say there's somewhere between forty and fifty people in the main room of the warehouse, judging by the level of noise their conversations produced," he reported, "I'm willing to be they're all armed, I heard guns cocking and swords sliding out of and into their sheathe. I definitely heard a chainsaw, at one point, as well."

Glynda frowned. "So we have an abandoned warehouse full of armed individuals. That is sufficient reason, when combined with our other intelligence, to suggest that this is the White Fang, but the numbers..."

"That's not the sort of manpower you'd expect at their HQ, right?" Coco cut in.

"Quite correct, Miss Adel," Glynda nodded, "My inclination is to suggest that this is merely a large side operation."

"What are our orders?" Yatsuhashi asked her.

Glynda thought about it. It didn't seem like this was the headquarters that they had been promised by Ozpin's mysterious informant. However, if they could take in whoever was in charge of this operation, that person could potentially get them the information they needed to stop the White Fang permanently. And with this being a side operation, it was a far easier proposition for her team to tackle...

"We are going in," Glynda informed them all, "We shut down this operation. Our priority is the capture of anyone who looks like they may be in a position of leadership. Now, as the leaders of the operation will be the most powerful and skilled opponents, I will move ahead once we enter and search the building to find and apprehend them. I would like you four to entertain our hosts in the main section of the building."

They nodded.

"You've been even more quiet than usual, Velvet," Coco asked in concern to their other team-mate, "Anything wrong?"

As an obvious Faunus, Velvet Scarletina had every right to have a strong opinion on the White Fang, their cause and their actions. "No," the girl shook her head, "We need to do this. I need to do this. They give all of us a bad name... a worse name," she frowned, "Things are bad enough for Faunus without the White Fang doing everything they can to prove the bigots right... if we can help put a stop to them, I won't allow myself to sit on the sidelines."

Once again, Glynda found herself very impressed with Velvet, and despairing of the world at large. What did it say about them, when a young woman like this, who showed more strength of character than _any_ of the humans she knew, was regarded as some kind of lesser being by so many?

"Well spoken," she praised, ignoring the girl's embarrassed blush. "Now then, students, before we proceed, as your teacher, I feel it would be remiss of me to miss an opportunity to further your education. Particularly relating to the etiquette of being a good guest," she adjusted her glasses, "You see, in most circles, it is considered polite to knock before you enter another's home. Mr Daichi," she nodded to Yatsuhashi, "Perhaps you would like to demonstrate what a polite young man you are?"

* * *

For the grunts who were currently waiting in the main section of the abandoned warehouse, things had gotten rather boring.

First, the Lieutenant had picked several groups out – informing them that they would have their chance for glory as they would defeat the local criminals who dared to stand against the White Fang.

Then, they had arrived at their destination, and were given the briefing: they were expecting an attack against this location. They would defend it, defeat the local criminals, and be rewarded for their success. They had also been informed of all priority targets, their appearance, weaponry and fighting styles.

They hadn't been informed that the waiting would be so boring. More than one of them silently wished for something, _anything_ to happen.

They would immediately regret that wish, as the wall was blown open by a thundering impact, that seemed to shake the entire warehouse.

They regained their bearings, and drew their weapons, ready for whoever would come through the breach.

When a brown-attired, slim girl in sunglasses and a beret strutted in like she owned the place and palmed her shoulder bag,, they were somewhat confused, particularly as this girl looked nothing like any of the priority targets they had been informed of.

"Well, they were _definitely_ right to call me," she said, shaking her head, "Hello, members of the White Fang! Coco Adel, world-class Fashionista, at your service," the girl introduced herself, "I'm here to fix the problem with your outfits."

This got a few confused looks. "... _What_ problem with our outfits?" one female member asked, somewhat self-consciously.

The girl, Coco, looked at the speaker with pity. "You mean you don't _know?_ Well, I guess it's my solemn duty as a Fashionista to educate you."

The bag at her hip suddenly unfolded outward, and the solders of the White Fang suddenly became _very_ aware that they were staring down the multiple barrels of an extraordinarily large mini-gun.

"They don't have enough _holes_ _in them_."

That was when the other four entered the room, and the bullets started flying.

* * *

Cinder's head whipped around as one of the grunts frantically opened the door to the converted basement. "Boss! We've got hunters! Five of them!"

"Five?" She frowned for a moment, "One and a team of students. Clever _boy_ , Roman. I can't say I was ever expecting you to run to Beacon."

Roman leaned back in apparent satisfaction. "Well, I try not to let myself get predictable."

Cinder considered her options. If she stuck around, she would probably end up in a fight with a Hunter or Huntress – and depending on just who they had sent, she wasn't sure if she could take them on or not. Staying, however, meant there was a good chance to preserve a significant part of the White Fang's strength.

"Hold them off," she told the grunt with a reassuring smile, "I'll be there shortly. Tell the Lieutenant he can... _cut loose_ ," she added.

Relieved, he nodded, and left the room. Cinder turned to Mercury and Emerald, who were anxiously listening to the sound of the fight. "Grab your gear. We're leaving."

"Wow. That's _cold_ ," Roman remarked from his cell, "Even _I_ wouldn't do – ah, who am I kidding, of course I would."

"We taking him with us?" Mercury indicated to their prisoner.

"Yes," Cinder ordered, "I don't want this all to be a waste, after all."

* * *

Coco smashed a grunt in the gut with her bag, doubling her over and leaving her gasping on the ground, winded. She then took a moment to observe the fight.

Her initial volley had taken down a good ten or so of the grunts – she had her baby set to stun, of course, so she didn't paint the inside of the warehouse with chunks of terrorist. She saw Yatsuhashi blow five of them away with one swing. Over on her left, Fox was handily dispatching another three, while Velvet was in front, kicking one in the face.

Professor Goodwitch had gone on ahead – the pair of unfortunate grunts who tried to stop her were planted in the wall with one wave of her riding crop. Still – Coco wasn't particularly concerned. She knew they could handle a few grunts.

She leaned back to avoid the sword-thrust of an unwitting fool who tried to blindside her – hand shooting out, she grabbed his collar, and pulled him down, hard. His face descended quickly, as her knee ascended, equally quickly. The two collided with a meaty crunch and his face lost the engagement decisively.

Another tried to slash at her – she leaned to the side again, before lashing out to the side of his leg with a powerful kick. She felt the leg break sideways and he screamed in pain.

As her favourite, self-invented saying went – look pretty, fight ugly.

As this came to mind, she glanced at Fox – currently putting another unfortunate terrorist down with an elaborate martial arts move. She once joked that Fox was basically her opposite – he looked rough, and fought pretty. He took the statement with the light-hearted intent that she intended; after all, it's not like he particularly cared about physical appearance.

The sound of a chainsaw whirring up drew her attention. She scanned the room, instantly spotting the huge White Fang member who was advancing on Velvet – who was currently busy with two others.

"Yatsuhashi!" Coco snapped as she smashed her bag straight into the face of another goon, "Big guy has your name on him!"

Yatsuhashi, with surprising speed for someone his size, barrelled past her, blade aloft, charging down the huge man. His opponent noticed him right away – and charged forward to meet him.

The two titans ran at full tilt – it was going to be a head-on collision. Both let out a mighty roar as their weapons connected.

* * *

Every window in the warehouse shattered as the entire building shook from the force of an enormous impact. Glynda felt a small shock wave ruffle her hair, originating from the room she had just left.

"What the devil are they doing back there?" she frowned, but decided to place her faith in Team CFVY – they weren't the top-rated combat team in the school for nothing. She had a different task to complete – she believed she had found the emergency exit. If she hurried, she may be able to catch any escapees before they got away.

* * *

" _What_ is going on in there?" Cinder shook her head in disbelief as she surveyed the damage from whatever had just occurred inside the building. Putting it out of her mind, she exited the door towards the landing pad, where a bullhead was waiting.

* * *

The concrete flooring around the two duelling giants was essentially gone – replaced by a large, if flat, crater, in which they were locked in a furious exchange of swords. Yatsuhashi was slightly faster than the giant White Fang terrorist, but the latter was clearly a more experienced fighter and even a touch from his weapon could do some real damage.

Still, the balance would be tipped – that shock wave had knocked out the remaining minions, freeing up the rest of the team to assist their large team-mate. As the pair's blades locked again, Velvet was the first to close the gap – with a jumping kick to the side of the man's head. He stumbled slightly, but did not seem overly affected – he grabbed the startled girl by the ankle with one hand, before swinging her at Yatsuhashi.

He was unable to block the attack, for fear of harming his team-mate, and was forced to stumble back to avoid the blow as best he could. His opponent then threw Velvet bodily towards the advancing Fox – both of them shouted in pain as she collided heavily with him.

The man lifted his chainsaw, ready to swing down at Yatsuhashi, who tried to bring his sword up to block – however, he was interrupted, as he became the recipient of a full body-check from Coco. He had practically shrugged off Velvet's kick – but while Coco wasn't quite Yatsuhashi, she certainly wasn't Velvet either. He was bodily knocked away from Yatsuhashi, stumbling back as Coco advanced on him again.

He swung his chainsaw from her right – her bag came up to deflect it in her left hand, and in one smooth motion, she turned fully clockwise to slam her right elbow into his face. He stumbled back again, his mask now slightly cracked, then lifted his chainsaw high to swing downwards – she blocked it, holding her her bag in both hands, but was forced to one knee by the effort. His superior strength was starting to win out – but as the chainsaw inched closer against her straining efforts, she pushed it off to the right, throwing him off-balance as the chainsaw, now lacking any kind of resistance, hit the ground.

Coco didn't waste a moment. In a flash, she had twisted onto her back, grasping her opponent by the head with her feet – then, in a twisting roll, her legs slammed him face-first into the ground, hard enough to crack the concrete. Using the momentum from the manoeuvre, she rolled over to kneel on his back.

Not giving him a moment to recover, she began savagely beating his head deeper into the concrete with her bag.

"Enjoy!"

 ** _Crack._ **

"Your!"

 _ **Crack.** _

"Massage!"

 _ **Crack.** _

"Asshole!"

Before she could land another hit, he roared and pushed up with all of his considerable strength – which was enough to send Coco bodily flying into the air. In a surprisingly smooth motion, he grabbed his chainsaw as he rose and swung it, clockwise towards her. Her eyes widened and she positioned her bag to try and block the hit – but it was unnecessary. Two hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back away from the swing, as Yatsuhashi re-entered the fight and occupied their enemy again.

She turned to her saviours. "Nice save, guys."

"He is ridiculously tough," Velvet frowned as she observed their opponent, whose mask was now completely gone - not that they could have identified his features from what Coco had left of his face, "I don't even think he _felt_ it when I kicked him."

"You're telling me," Coco then turned to Fox, "Let's see how well he takes a _different_ kind of hit. You're up, Fox."

He nodded, and approached the fight.

Yatsuhashi saw Fox from the corner of his eye, and quickly surmised the basic plan. He exchanged a few strikes with the other man – as soon as his opponent had lifted his chainsaw high for a strike, Yatsuhashi's sword rushed up to keep it there as long as possible – leaving his body open for Fox to come in.

Fox didn't miss a beat – he rushed in to take advantage of the opening. Unfortunately, the White Fang fighter had seen him coming as well – a foot shot up to kick him as he approached, forcing Fox to stop.

However, standing on only one leg, even for a moment, gave Yatsuhashi the opportunity he needed to push the other man off balance. With a roar, he pushed forward with all of the considerable strength he could muster. As their enemy stumbled, he shouted "Now!"

It was all the signal Fox needed. He darted in again, both arms cocked back, ready to strike – and as soon as he got in range, his arms shot forward, both fists colliding cleanly with the man's torso. A visible shock wave rippled through his body as he was sent flying back into the opposite wall with enough force to crack it, before another, delayed shock wave visibly distorted his body again. He fell to the ground with a cry of pain, and then lay there, unmoving.

Fox breathed an audible sigh of relief. " _Whew_. I'm glad that actually worked."

"Indeed," Yatsuhashi nodded, "I was not relishing the thought of facing him any longer."

Then the man stirred again.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be _kidding me_ ," Coco complained.

Growling, the terrorist pushed himself up on one hand. He looked up at his four opponents – before a brown box with a golden trim collided heavily with his forehead. Everything was silent for a moment, before his head swayed a little... then dropped to the ground again. This time, he didn't get back up.

Coco and Yatsuhashi stared at Velvet, whose arm was still out-stretched in a throwing position. The shy girl reclined on herself in embarrassment. "Ah... sorry, it's just... I was really getting sick of him."

Coco finally laughed. "We need to get you sick of people more often."

"Race traitor," a voice groaned from the floor, and the four whirled around to find that one of the grunts was still conscious, if still on the floor, and was glaring at Velvet.

Coco stopped laughing. "And look at this – we've already got our first volunteer."

"Why are you attacking us? Your own people? With the _Humans,_ even! We're fighting to make things better for all Faunus!" the woman spat.

Velvet strode towards her with an unreadable look, before leaning down to look her in the eye. "All you have ever done for me," she said finally, "Is make them hate me more. Made me into a _target_. Because they knew I wasn't like you, the ones they feared and despised. They knew I was peaceful. They knew I wouldn't _fight back_."

She stood up. "You aren't fighting to make things better for all Faunus," she said, voice colder than any of them ever remembered hearing from her, "You're fighting to make things better for _you_."

She then knocked the woman out with a solid kick the head, before walking back towards her team.

"Are you all right, Velvet?" Yatsuhashi asked quietly.

Velvet looked around at the carnage they had caused. "Yes," she admitted, "I think so. This was surprisingly cathartic."

"As I always say," Coco agreed, "If your problems can't be solved by hitting them hard in the face, you're either not hitting hard enough, or you need to start aiming for the nuts instead."

Fox sighed and palmed his face. "Our responsible team leader, people."

"Anyway," Coco continued, "Yatsuhashi, Velvet, can I count on you to look after things here? Get the big guy restrained as well as you can, if he wakes up again, have Velvet take him down," she sounded amused, "Tie up the grunts, and keep watch. Fox, you're with me, we're going to find the Prof and see if she needs any back-up," she paused as a loud noise seemed to come from outside.

The three students able to see stared in disbelief as an enormous, serpentine dragon comprised entirely of flames roared past the shattered windows and into the sky.

"Okaayyyyy..." Coco said dryly after a moment, "I'm going to take that as a 'yes, she does'. Come on, Fox!"

Fox looked confused as he began to follow her towards the exit. "Right, but what just happened?"

"Just a giant dragon made of fire!" Coco called over her shoulder.

"Oh, all right," he nodded, still following her, "Wait, a giant _what_ made of _what?_ Coco? Coco! I don't think I caught that part correctly! _Coco!_ "

* * *

 **A/N: Coco is so much fun to write. Absurdly fun. I feel like I want to write an entire fic that's just her kicking arse non-stop.**


	10. A Small Skirmish

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, it belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Neo watched intently from her position on the nearby roof as Roman was marched out of the building by the two people she had fought earlier, at the behest of that woman, Cinder. They were headed to a landing pad at the back, in a relatively large, open space between several buildings, that currently housed an air-ship, presumably their exit plan.

Had it just been the first two, she might have been able to pull him out – but with the latter there, her chances were very slim. She decided that she could really use a distraction.

She marvelled at the fortuitous timing of that thought, as the door opened again and the perfect distraction entered the field.

* * *

Glynda stormed through the door leading out of the building – and immediately saw a Bullhead drop-ship, preparing to take off. A young man and young woman had just bundled another man onto it – seemingly against their will – while a quite familiar individual was supervising them.

"Stop," she called out clearly, "Power down your ship and surrender peacefully, or I will apprehend you with force."

The black-haired woman in the red dress, as she suspected, the same one she had fought the night they met Ruby, turned around. Glynda saw that she had somehow covered the top half of her face with a mask.

"Take off," the woman ordered the other two.

Glynda wasn't having any of that. Her riding crop rose to stop the drop-ship – but she instead found herself raising a shield to defend against the fireball that had been fired her way.

Not missing a beat, her opponent fired off a set of flaming projectiles, each smashing against Glynda's force-field with enough force to crack the ground around her. Glynda used this to her advantage – with a flick of her unusual weapon, several pieces of rock rose into the air. With another flick, they were propelled towards the woman at speeds exceeding any bullet.

This didn't even give Glynda's opponent pause – she casually stopped each one with her hand, exerting a similar force-field to the one she herself had produced earlier.

Glynda intended to keep the initiative. With another flick, several beams shot into the sky above her – instantly forming severe storm clouds. With another flick, rain began pouring out of the clouds – however, instead of falling to the ground as it normally would under the constraints of gravity, it quickly collected into a large ball in front of her. Using the ever-growing mass as a translucent shield, Glynda moved it to intercept several fireballs. Once the mass of water had grown big enough, she slashed forward with her riding crop, a grunt of exertion passing her lips.

The water burst forth in a huge tidal wave, threatening to engulf not just her opponent, but the low-hovering drop-ship, as well. The pilot started pulling up, as quickly as possible. The fire-wielder was unfazed, however. She took a step forward, and thrust outward with both arms – and suddenly, a similarly-sized wave of flame rolled forth to meet Glynda's own attack. The two collided – and her wave evaporated, covering the battlefield in foggy steam.

Glynda allowed herself to smile.

* * *

"What's going on?" Emerald hissed, "I can't see a thing."

"Damn it," Mercury complained in realisation from the pilot's seat of the bullhead, "This was her plan with that wave. She forced Cinder to cover the whole area in this steamy fog, and now we need to wait for it to vanish before we fly this thing anywhere or we might hit another building or something on the way out."

* * *

Cinder's eyes narrowed in annoyance, as she realised she had fallen neatly into the teacher's trap. Now the Bullhead was trapped until the fog lifted, and the fight was now low-visibility, which meant any fire attacks she used would light up her position like a beacon, whereas her opponent could throw debris without the same problem.

It would have been an extremely effective plan – had she been limited to purely fire attacks, or unaccustomed to fighting silently. Unfortunately for her opponent, she was.

With a flourish, a glass longbow formed in her hands. She nocked a trio of arrows, and let fly in the direction her opponent had been. Not wasting a movement, she continued to form arrows at a pace many would find astonishing, a figurative hail of near-silent projectiles flying through the fog.

Glynda had less than a split-second of warning before an arrow whistled through the air, dangerously close to her face. Another flew by – and a third, this one on course to hit her before a hastily-conjured force-field stopped it. She ducked under another arrow, then, realising she required a more permanent defence, raised a wall of rock and concrete from the ground in front of her.

Her manoeuvre had backfired somewhat, it seemed – her opponent was clearly able to fight in low-visibility, likely even better than she could. Just as a fireball exploded against her wall of stone, her opponent clearly having ascertained her location from the noise, she flicked her riding crop again, and the fog moved away from the fight and began to convalesce around the drop-ship.

The battlefield cleared – and the stand-off commenced once more, both women staring each other down, waiting to see who would make the first move.

This time, Cinder decided to take the initiative. Stepping forward, she pushed her arms out and to the side with a cry of exertion – calling forth an _enormous_ wave of extremely hot flame, even larger than the one she had used to counter Glynda's wave earlier.

Cinder took a deep breath as she watched the explosive tsunami of fire roll forth towards the teacher with enough force to easily smash through the walls of a building. These large attacks were beginning to tire her out, and she wasn't sure how long she could keep fighting at this kind of intensity.

Glynda's response was equally impressive. She twisted her riding crop upward, and the ground _shifted_.

A wide wall of stone, curved to the form of a large, vertical half-pipe, rose into the air. The wave of flame rolled right along and up the curve of the wall, and was redirected back – straight towards her.

Grimacing, she pushed out her arms, and began to turn.

* * *

Glynda took a few deep breaths as the redirected flames began to twist around her opponent. That trick had taken quite a bit out of her, and she sincerely hoped that her opponent was beginning to run out of steam.

The flames stilled, and Glynda's eyes widened as they formed a large, serpentine dragon. The woman began directing it with her arm, and Glynda barely leapt out of the way as it smashed directly through her curved wall. Turning around as it came back for another run, she was forced to dodge again as it crashed into the remains. The wall was now effectively a pile of rubble.

Glynda quickly examined her options. _'Well, when you need to slay a dragon...'_ she thought dryly before her riding crop began moving again. The thick fog surrounding the drop-ship pulled together, and when the fire dragon came in for its next attack, it was intercepted by a large mass of water, which began shaping into a quite recognisable form.

First, visible arms, and legs, bubbled into shape. An approximation of an armoured head sprouted from the distinctly humanoid torso. Finally, as a huge sword, twice as tall as she was, and a shield reminiscent of a building wall rippled into place, the enormous watery knight strode forth to meet its foe.

* * *

"Look, the fog's recedi- oh boy," Mercury said in shock as he took in the battle.

"What are you – what the hell?" Emerald gasped.

It was like a scene out of a legend, as the fiery dragon, several times longer than their airship, weaved around, avoiding a swing from the sword wielded by the hydro-kinetic knight, standing several times taller than a human. The weapon carved into one of the surrounding buildings like a bride cutting their wedding cake. The dragon wheeled around, trying to get around the watery guardian, but was forced to veer off as the shield, the size of a castle gate, intercepted it's flight path. Cinder's arms and the Huntress' riding crop were constantly in motion as they directed their creations.

"Wow, they're _really_ going at it," Roman marvelled nervously from his seat, where he sat, arms and legs bound, "I don't think I've seen a pair of women look this dangerous since that business with my affair! So, uh, this handy little flying boat of yours... I don't suppose it's proofed against _dragons_ and _giant swords_ , is it?"

* * *

"Okay, so... for what it's worth?" Coco stared in disbelief at the mythological duel, "The Prof seems to have the dragon covered."

"We getting involved?" Fox asked.

"No way," she told him emphatically, "This fight is even out of _our_ league," her eyes narrowed in thought as she observed the situation, taking note of the drop-ship hovering nearby, "...but that doesn't mean there's _nothing_ we can do. Cover me."

* * *

Neo silently altered her threat estimation of Cinder from 'Only fight as matter of last resort' to 'Run like hell, no matter what'. Coincidentally, she also placed Glynda Goodwitch in that bracket.

Still, Glynda was more than adequately holding Cinder's attention – now she just needed to find a way onto that drop-ship.

Once again, she was about to get exactly what she wished for – however, in the future, she would make a note to word her requests to the Powers That Be a little more specifically.

* * *

Mercury carefully edged the Bullhead away from the battle, still trying his best to stay close enough to provide an exit for Cinder without the ship being sliced in half or exploded.

" _Hey!"_

Frowning, he looked down through the window – a brown-clad girl he'd never seen before was shouting from one of the nearby roofs, accompanied by a boy in an orange vest.

" _You're pretty good at flying that thing!"_ she called out, _"But how good are you at_ _LANDING IT_ _?"_

"What's she talking ab – _oh god that's a minigun_ ," Emerald's confusion turned to a panicked shout, shortly before a hail of high-calibre bullets shredded the Bullhead's right wing, causing it to spasm out of control. Mercury grimaced as they began descending uncontrollably.

" _We are departing for: The_ _g_ _round!_ _"_ the shooter declared, _"_ _Thank you for choosing to fly with CFVY! Enjoy your trip!_ _"_

"Open the doors!" Emerald snapped as the ship rocked severely, knocking Roman out of his seat, "We've got to jump!"

* * *

Neo finally saw her slim opportunity as the drop-ship began falling close to her rooftop, and both side doors opened up. There was a lower roof directly across the street, and a small window of opportunity.

This would require perfect timing.

Breaking out into a run, she quickly reached the edge of the rooftop but did not stop there. Jumping off the edge of the roof, she travelled through the air, looking to intercept the path of the drop-ship.

She allowed herself a moment of satisfaction. She had timed her jump correctly.

As she entered the left side door, her eyes briefly scanned the room and her foot instantly lashed out, kicking the startled Emerald back into Mercury, both stumbling back towards the cockpit. Smirking, her parasol then shot out to her left, hooking Roman by the back of his coat, yanking him bodily from the floor and out of the falling death-trap with her as she exited through the right-side door.

She landed with a neat roll onto the opposite roof, Roman giving an angry grunt of pain as he collided unceremoniously with the hard surface immediately after.

Behind her, the drop-ship collided with the building she had just vacated - and scraped down the side of the building, carving an enormous gash down it before hitting the ground in a thundering explosion. A short distance away, the duelling

* * *

"Okay..." Coco admitted after observing the manoeuvre, "I've got to admit it, _that?_ Was pretty awesome."

The unknown girl stood up, and locked eyes with the leader of Team CFVY, sporting a smug smirk.

"What are you doing? They're getting away," Fox told her urgently.

Coco frowned in confusion as she brought her gun to bear on the roof, opening fire and riddling it with bullets on the non-lethal setting. Her frown became even more pronounced as the girl and the man she pulled out of the drop-ship simply disappeared, with a strange effect somewhat similar to a shattering glass window.

"What the – semblance," she muttered in realisation, turning to look around, "It looked like they were just sitting there."

"Don't bother looking around," Fox shook his head, "They're already gone – I'm guessing one of them has some kind of illusion trick."

"At least we know you can counter it," Coco said, her attention now on something else entirely, "Now, though, I think we _really_ need to back up a little."

* * *

There was a momentary lull in the fighting, as Cinder and Glynda both turned to see the Bullhead fall to the ground, landing behind another building with a thundering crash.

Years of fighting dirty, combined with sudden desperation, ensured Cinder was the first to react. Her flame construct rocketed towards Glynda, who barely managed to snap her knight in place in time to stop it. However, instead of veering off, the dragon collided directly with the aquatic guardian – evaporating a huge amount of water, and kicking up a large amount of steamy fog once more, obscuring the latter's vision. _'Two can play at that game,'_ she thought with a small amount of satisfaction.

Not wasting a moment, Cinder turned and ran as quickly as she could towards the spot where the ship fell. Scaling the building in a single, fire-propelled jump, she internally winced as she took in the wreckage that was formerly their Bullhead – and the unmoving forms of Mercury and Emerald who lay within it. She grabbed the pair, one in each arm, before pulling her last trick. She prepared herself with a grimace – pulling this off was going to cost her dearly.

* * *

With a gesture of her hand, the woman blasted a fireball at the rooftop that housed Coco and Fox, forcing them both to dive out of the way and take cover. She then threw a small, white ball of flame towards Glynda, who had just appeared on the roof she had vacated – a second shot collided with the ball, causing it to light up like a miniature sun. The dazzlingly bright flash temporarily blinded Glynda, who instinctively raised a defensive force-field, but it was unnecessary - she was not attacked. When her vision returned, her opponent was gone, as were her fallen underlings.

"They're gone," Fox then called out, "Either that or somehow, she can move quietly even when she's carrying two people. Either way, I doubt we'll catch them, Professor."

The battle finally over, Glynda collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. She was actually glad the fight had stopped - the exertion of using so many high-level attacks had taken a lot out of her and she wasn't sure if she could continue. She took a moment to catch her breath. "Miss Adel," she finally said as the two students approached her, "Report."

"We've got a bunch of minions and one guy who might be some kind of captain restrained in the warehouse," Coco responded dutifully, "He was tough as _hell_ , but we took him down. Yatsuhashi and Velvet are guarding them. I brought Fox out here to see if you needed backup, and after checking out the situation, decided to shoot down their get-away boat. Also, before it crashed, a pink-haired girl with a white coat pulled some guy out of it and disappeared with some kind of illusion trick."

Glynda listened intently as she pulled herself to her feet. "Very well," she acknowledged, "Let's head back inside and ensure these prisoners are properly restrained. I imagine the police should be here any minute. We will go over the mission in more detail once we are safely back at Beacon."

Sure enough, the sound of sirens could be heard, getting steadily louder. Glynda sighed, and observed the surrounding area. The once smooth ground was completely torn up. The surrounding buildings had all their windows smashed, some had huge gouges from her knight's giant water sword or the fire dragon - another was wrecked by the crash of the air-ship. The place looked for all intents and purposes like it had seen the opening stage of a war.

She sat down, and decided to rest for a few moments - cleaning this up was going to take her all day.

* * *

Cinder staggered, leaning against the wall in exhaustion. She had managed to carry the pair what many would consider a remarkable distance away in the short space of time bought with her flare trick – but she was effectively done. She did not have the strength or energy left to drag them back to base, and would certainly not have managed another fight.

Observing the still forms of Mercury and Emerald, she reluctantly made a decision – the two were still alive, but needed medical assistance, immediately. She pulled out her scroll, and formed a message requesting a pick-up to her allies. That done, she slumped down to the ground.

And silently hoped that Adam would wait until she had enough energy to actually stand up straight before he started questioning her about how the operation went.

* * *

 **A/N: When I first started this fic, I planned for the rematch between Glynda and Cinder to be somewhat understated. Yeah, uh... you can see how that went.**


	11. A Wound is Licked

**A/N: I must admit, I was kind of worried the last chapter would tank, seeing as it followed what was seemingly the best-received chapter I've ever done. I'm glad it turned out well. Thank you for all the kind reviews, follows and favourites - while I'd never say I write just to hear your praise, it certainly does add icing to the cake!**

 **AceAmir: To answer your question, I generally try to put out an update at least every 2 days. Smaller chapters helps with that, as does having the entire story outlined on a separate document so I can keep myself on track with what I'm writing.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY - it all belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

"So, I believe this is the part where you tell me exactly _how_ your fool-proof ambush turned into a complete disaster."

Cinder held a hand to her forehead to stem the oncoming headache. "Torchwick did something I didn't anticipate," she admitted, "I was expecting a known criminal to stay far away from Beacon, not go to them directly. It was a very risky move."

"Between you, the Lieutenant, your two little tag-alongs, and the troops we had on hand, you should have been able to handle one Huntress and a group of students," Adam replied coldly, "I've got to admit, I'm quite curious as to how you and those kids got away when none of ours made it back, Cinder."

"They separated us," Cinder began the explanation she had cooked up, "Mercury, Emerald and I were at the cells, interrogating Torchwick when they attacked – the Huntress managed to put herself between us and the rest of the troops, who were guarding the main section of the warehouse. It was quite ingenious of them."

"And you couldn't overpower her?" Adam asked, "Even with three of you, against one Huntress?"

"That 'one Huntress' was Glynda Goodwitch," Cinder reminded him frostily, "She is an extraordinarily powerful opponent, and not someone you simply 'overpower'. Our numbers advantage meant nothing, Mercury and Emerald, skilled as they are, would have been nothing but a hindrance in that fight."

"They didn't end up doing much better," Adam noted correctly – the pair's injuries would see them out of action for at least a couple of weeks. "And I see that you and yours still managed to escape."

"As you know," she sighed, "That was a close-run thing." She then changed the subject, "The members who were captured. What did they know?"

Adam grunted in frustration. "The Lieutenant knows a lot of things, but he's not going to talk, and neither Beacon nor the Police have the guts to make him."

"And the others?" Cinder pressed.

"Oh, they knew nothing of value..." Adam began, "...Apart from, oh, _OUR LOCATION_ _._ They were picked for you mission for reliability, but eventually, most people will talk. I'd give us a few weeks, at most, before someone opens their mouth."

"So we need to assume the authorities will soon know where we are," Cinder mused in irritation, "Have you begun preparations to relocate?"

"Of course I have," Adam said simply, "Initiative. It's one of the perks of _knowing what the hell you're doing_."

Cinder managed to ignore that slight to her ability. "And our stockpiles?" she asked delicately.

"We can move all of the dust to a new location simply enough," Adam told her, "But moving everything out is going to set us back significantly in terms of what we're bringing in."

Cinder thought it over. "More and more, it seems that we need to take a large shipment."

Adam grunted. "That, we can actually agree on. So _you're_ going to find one. When you do, you'll tell _me_. I'm not going to let you _screw things up_ in the field again," He turned to leave.

"I'll handle the next operation _personally_."

Cinder silently seethed, as he left the office. There were moments when she wished with the utmost sincerity that she didn't need Adam Taurus, and this was one of them.

* * *

"So... run it by me, one more time," Junior requested, scratching his head, "Just so I know I understand it correctly. You knew we had a rat."

"Yes," Roman rolled his eyes, "I knew we had a rat. I knew that said rat would give the charming Miss Cinder an indication as to what our plan was – namely, finding their location. Following me so far?"

Junior nodded. "Yeah, but... how did you know we had a rat?"

Roman chuckled. "Junior, Junior, Junior..." he tutted, "One thing you really should have learned about this business is that there's _always_ a rat."

Junior shook his head. "Whatever. So you knew they knew your plan."

"Indeed!" Roman went back to his explanation, "Now, as you know, since they knew I wasn't on the up and up," he paused, "Which they really could have determined just by _interacting_ with me, but I digress, they took me not to their main headquarters, but to another location, instead, where they had a _not-inconsiderable_ amount of goons and fighting power holed up, just _waiting_ for whoever came to pick me up."

He began pacing around the room. "Now, this meant I could kill two birds with one stone. I called in the authorities, who launched their raid, and took down a significant chunk of the White Fang's manpower, and hopefully one or two of their higher-ups. On top of that, since it wasn't the _headquarters_ they were raiding, all of that stockpiled dust that's going to make us rich _didn't_ get confiscated by the authorities. We don't want that to happen, of course, do we?"

"I... no," Junior agreed, "I just had no idea you were planning this far ahead the whole time."

"Junior, I'm _always_ planning this far ahead," Roman assured him, "As I always say: you can't set up the trip-wire if you're _not_ a few steps ahead of the person you want to send tumbling to the ground."

"That makes sense," Junior agreed, "So what now?"

"Now," Roman said bluntly, "We need to get the hell out of here again."

"Because of that rat-bastard," Junior grimaced, "We don't have another safe-house."

"Well, that is where you're wrong," Roman disagreed, "You see, I just happen to know of an old warehouse district with a _large amount_ of unused real-estate – and I assure you, it's the _last_ place they'd think to look. Get everyone packing up, and I'll tell you all about it when you're ready to move. Now then, Neo, shall we?"

He walked out of the room, leaving a confused, but grudgingly accepting Junior. After all - his plan had worked, right?

* * *

The two flamboyant crooks were silent until they reached Roman's (recently appropriated) car. Once the vehicle door was shut, Neo turned to Roman with a raised eyebrow.

"...?"

"And what makes you think any of that was a load of crap?" Roman asked defensively.

She gave him a dry look.

"Fine, so maybe I was a _little bit_ liberal with the truth in places..." he said nervously.

She didn't let up.

"Fine, fine, okay, it was _all_ a load of crap! Are you happy now?" Roman finally admitted, "I had _no idea_ we had a damn rat and I _definitely_ had no idea things were going to turn out the way they did."

"...?" she asked.

"I expected them to take me to their headquarters!" Roman explained, "I wanted to end this whole thing then and there. Did you really think I asked you to turn me into a punching bag," he glared at her sudden innocent look, "For the sake of taking out a few low-level goons and a few members of the middle-management?"

"..."

"Of _course_ they would have confiscated the stolen dust," Roman rolled his eyes, "Do you think I don't know that?"

"...?" she asked in confusion.

"I promise a lot of people a lot of things, and don't deliver," Roman hissed, "I was _lying through my teeth_. I didn't intend for Junior to get a _damn thing_ out of this. In fact, I expect him to get even _less_ than that."

Neo shook her head in amusement as she realised what he was saying.

"Think about it," Roman told her, "This entire thing is just one big _opportunity_. At the end of all this... The White Fang, driven out. This _new_ enterprise, gone. Junior's group, either destitute, detained, or dead," he listed off the possibilities, "Who does that leave? Us. Roman Torchwick, the undisputed kingpin of Vale. Has a nice ring to it," he paused, then added, "And his sidekick Neo, of course."

She gave him an unimpressed look.

"Aha," he chuckled nervously, remembering his recent beating, "Did I say _sidekick?_ I meant _partner_. Clearly."

She nodded in acceptance of the rightful correction.

"But really," Roman continued, "We can come out of this on top, with _nobody_ left to challenge us. Think about it... all the good jobs running through us first, all the useful information being ours to sell, all the manpower hired coming from us," he said wistfully, "We'd never have to do another dishonest day's work," he then shot her a glance, " _And_ we can run our own bar as a front so you can drink those horrific ice cream concoctions all day."

That was the point when she finally looked absolutely sold on the idea.

"For now, though," Roman frowned, "We still need Junior's information, and maybe his man-power. Thanks to that damn rat," he growled, "Those idiots at Beacon didn't exactly give the kind of response I was expecting, either. _One team_? They could have captured that damn woman if they'd sent more, like I expected them to when faced with an opportunity to take down the _entire damn White Fang_! I'm going to give that idiot a piece of my mind... anonymously, of course," he clarified quickly, "And if that trigger-happy maniac hadn't shot down the airship we were in, you might have been able to track me all the way back to their actual base!" He seethed. "He'd _better_ be regretting his decision just to send that bunch as much as I am."

* * *

"All in all, I must say I am extraordinarily pleased with the results of your mission," Ozpin praised, "While it was not the intelligence coup we hoped for, you still managed to shut down a major White Fang operation, bring in a high-level member, and gain vital intelligence on several new players we were unaware of."

The four members of team CFVY, alongside Glynda, were in the middle of their debriefing for the White Fang mission.

"I wish we had been able to capture that woman, though," Velvet frowned in disappointment.

Coco put a hand on her team-mate's shoulder. "There's nothing we could have done about that, Velvet," she said reassuringly, "She was out of our league. Besides, look on the bright side. We took down a load of their members and a high-ranking guy! Really, we actually did more than the Professor."

The aforementioned professor's eye started to twitch.

"She didn't mean anything by that!" Velvet hastily tried to placate their teacher.

"Coco," Fox sighed in resignation, "Maybe you could, I don't know, _not_ annoy the woman who decides our grades? Or maybe even _apologise?_ "

Coco gave him an odd look. "You used a strange word just there," she said suspiciously, "I'm not quite sure I know what it means."

"None-the-less," Ozpin cut in, with visible amusement, "Miss Adel's appraisal of your success is quite true, Miss Scarletina. Do not worry - in time, the members you helped to capture _will_ lead us to the rest of their organisation."

"You can all expect to receive high marks for your performance during the mission," Glynda added. "Velvet, you performed admirably in hand-to-hand, and you showed no hesitation in attacking a difficult opponent like the Lieutenant you faced. That is a big improvement, well done." She turned from the now-embarrassed girl to Fox, "Mr. Alistair, you proved vital to ensuring we had accurate intelligence on the enemy's numbers before we entered the building, and as always, performed very well in combat, striking the decisive blow that allowed your team to bring down a high-value target. And Mr. Daichi," she addressed Yatsuhashi, who had been standing silently up to that point, "As always, you performed very well in your role, defeating large numbers of enemies and keeping the attention of a powerful opponent so your team could plan their defeat."

There was a moment of silence. Coco cleared her throat. Glynda looked at her, as though surprised she was there.

"Oh, yes. You weren't bad."

" _Glynda,_ " Ozpin scolded.

"Fine," she sighed, "As always, Miss Adel, you kept a level head in the chaos of battle, directed your team well, and made sound tactical decisions, and in direct combat, you were as efficient and pragmatic as ever. While your decision to shoot down the airship was a risky move and hastily made, I do not, in hindsight, believe it to have been an incorrect one. Now, unless there is anything else?" she turned to Ozpin.

"I do not think so," he shook his head, "Do you have any questions?"

They all shook their heads.

"Very well," Glynda nodded, "Again, thank you for your hard work. You may go."

* * *

"I really thought she was going to mark you and the rest of us down, there," Velvet said, sighing in relief as the team headed back to their dorm.

"Ah, it turned out fine," Coco waved it off, "Professor Goodwitch is a pro. She doesn't let little things like not being as awesome as us get in the way of grading."

"I still say you could have apologised," Fox added in amusement, "Just to be sure. I kind of _like_ being the top-rated team in the school."

"Fox, let me let you in on a little fact of life that you should probably know about by now," Coco declared, " _I don't apologise_."

"Yeah," Fox chuckled, "We get that."

"No," Coco shook her head, "I don't think you do. I don't apologise for anything, because I value the decisions I've made, the actions I've taken, the experiences that I've shared with all of you guys."

"What do you mean?" Velvet asked quietly.

"Apologising implies that you regret the actions, the decisions and experiences which lead you to that point," Coco explained, "That you wish they'd happened differently, or hadn't happened _at all_. To that? I say _hell no_. I don't regret a damn thing and I never will. Look at us," she indicated, "Can you honestly say you would rather that any of things we've done together had gone differently?"

"No," Yatsuhashi, surprisingly, was the first to respond.

"No," Fox replied a moment after.

"No way," Velvet shook her head.

"And _that_ ," Coco nodded finally, "Is why I don't apologise for _anything_."

"You do ruffle a few feathers with that attitude, though," Fox pointed out sensibly.

"Well..." Coco began slowly, "If people don't like how I roll? They can pick up their gym-shorts," she held up a finger, "Grab their running shoes," she held up another, "Play some music," she held up a third, "And _jog on._ "

"While I am reluctant to interrupt this interesting philosophical discussion," Yatsuhashi's voice was an amused rumble, "I am curious as to whether we will be part of any further action against the White Fang, once they have obtained whatever information our mission will provide."

"I hope so," Velvet spoke up, "I'd quite like to see this through to its end."

Their conversation, particularly the end part, was overheard by several other students. It would slowly spread, until eventually, the rumour that CFVY had gone on a mission against the White Fang would be all around the school... eventually leading to some rather interesting ramifications for certain _other_ teams.


	12. An Opportunity Arises

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY - it belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

It was one of Vale's quieter bars – not the sort of place one would frequent for dancing, spirit mixes and loud music, but rather a place to wind down, and enjoy a cool, refreshing drink. This relaxing atmosphere, coupled with its' proximity to Vale's docks ensured that it was a favourite among the dock-workers after a hard days' work.

Which was why several of them were there right now, with friends, toasting the beginning of the weekend.

"Here's to two days off," one boisterous man called out, "May they last for all eternity!"

A round of cheers echoed through the pub.

"I'm telling you, man, the kid works harder than anyone else here," another complained, "It's not right, the foreman being so hard on him just because he's a Faunus. It's not like he's a member of the damn White Fang or anything."

"Sounds rough," his friend commiserated, "But there's just no changing the minds of some people, Cole."

"Yeah, you've got the right of it there, Shaoqing," the worker, Cole, sighed, "They say that old bastard is a vet from the Faunus war. He hates 'em, no matter what they do."

"So, you're looking pretty tired," Shaoqing noted, "They been working you hard?"

"Don't you _know_ it," the other man shook his head in disbelief, "We've been grafting like there's no tomorrow. Clearing out a load of space for a huge load coming in next Tuesday. Those damn 'security guards' don't help, either – mulling about the place, bossing us all around, scaring the crap out of good, honest workers."

"They're bringing in security?" Shaoqing asked with a raised eyebrow. "You know, I'm looking for some work to do on the side at the moment, some extra beer money, you know what I mean? And you know I've done security work before. Are they hiring? It sounds like you could do with having at least one guy watching your back who isn't a total ass-hole," he grinned.

Cole laughed. "That we would, that we would – but I don't think it's a freelance job, sorry. These guys are big company guys, some kind of private security firm. Standardised uniforms and all that. We both know you couldn't pull off an armour vest," he laughed.

Shaoqing chuckled. "Yeah, I guess not. Well, it was worth a try. So why are they bumping up security now, you think? Is it because of the robberies? I heard they'd died down."

"Could be," Cole shrugged, "I just hope there's no need for 'em. Our job's hard enough without some terrorists busting up our docks and stealing our cargo."

Shaoqing nodded. "I hear that," he checked his watch, "Looks like it's about time I left. I'll see you around, okay?"

"Sure thing," Cole nodded, "You look after yourself, now."

"You know I always do," he called over his shoulder as he left the building, before dialling a number on his scroll. "Hey, dude. Can someone pick me up? It's just, I've had a few drinks, and I think I've got something the Boss will want to hear."

* * *

From: anon434 .atl

To: phoenix .hv

The information you requested.

Attached: Schedule

Cinder hummed thoughtfully as her eyes scanned the attached file.

This was exactly what they needed. She rose to find Adam.

* * *

"Now, according to my pal who works at the docks, their workload has gone through the roof, recently," the man began explaining, "They're clearing out space for a really big shipment, due in next tuesday."

"That could mean anything," Melanie pointed out.

"It could," Roman mused, "But a huge shipment suggests that it's something that there's a _lot_ of demand for at the moment. And what do we have something of a _shortage_ of at the moment, thanks to our friends? But still, it's circumstantial evidence at best."

"Dust," Miltia said in realisation.

"Go on," Junior nodded at the man, "I'm guessing you got more than that."

"I did," he agreed, "My friend said there's private security there, too. Not freelance security guys, an actual firm, standardised gear and such."

Neo looked up. "..."

" _That_ , we can use," Roman translated, as the girl indicated what she was trying to get across, "Big companies tend to have preferred, 'reliable' security firms they like to contract – if we can figure out which firm it is, we can cross-check them to see if it's a group that the Schnee Dust Company tend to use."

"That's smart," Junior said appraisingly, "Shouldn't be hard to find out who the guards are, either."

"Well, well," Roman stood up, "I have to say, I'm _almost_ impressed. This sounds like exactly what we need. And also," he mentioned as an afterthought, "Your men did some _nice_ work with the car. I don't think it's been _this_ clean since someone _legally_ owned it."

"Yeah, yeah," Junior rolled his eyes, "We'll get to work on finding that firm."

"Good," Roman said as he and Neo left the room, "Call me when we know more. I've got some important business of my own to attend to."

After waiting until he was sure they were gone, he turned to two of his men. "You've got the recordings?"

"Yeah, boss, like you asked," the one on the left nodded.

"Good," Junior grunted, "I want volunteers. Pay and a half for whoever is willing to go through that footage."

"I'll do it, boss."

"Me, too."

"Count me in."

"Right. You three, get on that," he ordered, "If you see anything you think I should know about, you tell me right away. Got it?"

A round of nods answered him.

"Good. Now get going."

* * *

"Next Tuesday," Cinder informed him, "A Schnee Dust Company freighter is coming to offload a large amount of dust at the Vale Docks. They are hiring extra security, but I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle."

Adam grunted. "The source?"

"It's an inside man at the Schnee Dust Company," Cinder assured him, "Believe me - he knows better than to lie to me."

"Good," Adam nodded, "That gives us about a week to prepare..."

He turned back towards his troops.

"Plenty of time."

* * *

From: whistleblower3214

To: thebigcheese

Subject: Congratulations.

Message:

 **You know, 'the big cheese' is clearly a fitting title for you – because apparently, you completely goddamn _stink_ at planning a successful operation. One huntress and some school kids? What part of 'you can take out the brains behind the White Fang' was particularly _unappealing_ to you? Because if you'd sent even _one_ more team and a hunter or huntress? You would have had them. Well done on fucking that up spectacularly, though. I would be impressed if I wasn't so angry.**

 **Now, this might be a foreign concept to you, apparently lacking in intelligence as you so are, but when an informant gives you information, they usually expect you to actually _do something with it_.**

 **Also, that blithering moron in the beret nearly killed me with that oversized monstrosity she has for a gun. That didn't exactly improve my opinion of your competence.**

 **The next time I get a location, you'd better take me seriously, or the only thing I'll be telling you in the future is where you can stick that damn cane.**

 **Yours with the _utmost_ sincerity,**

 **A Person with a Brain**

Ozpin blinked as he finished reading through the email. "Oh, my," he muttered, "It seems our mysterious whistle blower is rather irritated. Though," he mused, "That does give us a clue as to their identity. Perhaps I could ask Miss Adel to recant her actions that day."

He then realised that he was going to have to ask _Coco Adel_ to provide a list of _how many people she had shot at_ during a mission.

He resolved to get some more paper, first.

* * *

 **A/N: Smaller chapter this time - the following chapters should be significantly larger, however. Also, it's annoying that FF doesn't let you add made-up email addresses to a document, but meh, first world problems.**

 **For those of you asking about Team RWBY - Look out for the next chapter, because they're about to make their appearance...**

 **LongSean22: If you'd believe it, when I was prototyping this, I actually wrote a prologue chapter that had Roman and Neo stealing 'The Third Crusade' from Tukson's Book Trade, mainly to get some feedback on the tone I was setting, etc. The characterisation was off, though, according to the feedback I got, so it never made it into the fic. Still... he's there in spirit.**


	13. A Team Shattered

**Disclaimer: RWBY doesn't belong to me. It's all Rooster Teeth's.**

* * *

Ruby Rose was the leader of a team that seemed to be falling apart.

The school year had started well enough. She had many fears about being moved forward two years - that she wouldn't be good enough, that she couldn't keep up with the work, and, especially, that she wouldn't be able to make any friends.

These fears would prove to be unfounded. During her initiation, she ended up partnered with Weiss Schnee - the white-haired, white-dressed, rich heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. While their initial meeting had been explosive (literally), and there was some friction to start with, the two had eventually bonded and became solid friends.

Also on her team, to her delight, was her older sister, Yang Xiao Long. Tall, blonde, and curvy, Ruby would be the first to admit that she and Yang looked nothing alike - but ever since her mother had died, Yang had been a constant rock in her life, from tucking her in at night and reading her stories, to making her lunch for school, to always being there to give her advice if she needed it. Having her around was a familiar comfort to Ruby in what had started out as an unfamiliar place.

And rounding out the team was Blake Belladonna. Dark haired and darkly attired, Blake was almost like Yang's opposite in colour and temperament - where Yang was loud, headstrong and bold, Blake was calm, reserved and cautious. She was the quietest member of the team by some distance, not quite _preferring_ her books over human interaction, but coming close - but she had still formed a fast friendship with each of the other three girls.

A friendship that was sorely tested today.

It had started in the school's dining hall, as team RWBY, first year students of Beacon Academy, had sat down to have their evening meal. It had been decent enough, for a Monday at least, but all of her team were glad to finally be out of the classroom.

Then, they overheard one of the other groups discussing the latest news involving Team CFVY. They all knew Velvet Scarlatina, a member of the upper-year team, due to her sharing some classes with them – Ruby honestly hadn't really paid attention as to _why_ that was, considering the other girl was an upper year, and she didn't particularly care – she liked Velvet, who was always nice to her when they spoke, and that was all Ruby felt she needed to know about the matter.

According to the rumour mill, it seemed that Team CFVY had completed a strange mission – rather than facing Grimm, they had gone out to fight the White Fang, and apparently, they had done a really good job of it.

She probably should have expected that Weiss would be happy about the news. Even Ruby, lacking in worldly knowledge as she was, knew that the Schnee Dust Company and the White Fang hated each other with even more intensity than Ruby's long-standing enmity with her nemesis, green vegetables. She hadn't _quite_ expected just _how_ happy Weiss would be about it, though. As in, 'talking loudly about how they might get the chance to bring those degenerate, murdering Faunus to justice' levels of happy.

She also _definitely_ hadn't expected Blake to get so angry, and start verbally tearing into Weiss – defending the White Fang's motives, and calling Weiss a racist.

It was at this point that Ruby had brought them all back to their dorm room, so they could continue the argument in some kind of privacy, mainly out of fear for their safety. Blake's sympathising with the White Fang wouldn't go down well with many of the students at Beacon, and she was pretty sure that if Velvet's team happened by while Weiss was saying some of the things she had been, they might have actually killed her, or they would at least have settled for crippling.

That was also the point when she stopped having any kind of relevance to the situation at all. From there, Ruby, brave and bold team leader of Team RWBY, had been reduced to a mere spectator, watching helplessly as two of the members of her team viciously tore strips from each other.

"They've got the entire city living in _fear_ ," Weiss ranted, "They're stealing Dust from every store and warehouse in Vale. They're a menace!"

"It's not them!" Blake stressed, "They're an _equality movement!_ Why would they possibly need to steal Dust?"

"Why do they need to commit _any_ of the criminal acts they do?" Weiss retorted, "Because they're a bunch of murdering psychopaths, that's why!"

"They are not!" Blake growled, "They are a group of misguided Faunus!"

"How can you _possibly_ defend their actions?" Weiss demanded, "You know what they've done! They've killed, stole, vandalised people's belongings – they are terrorists! They are _evil!_ "

"They are not evil!" Blake shot back heatedly, "They were _only_ forced to act that way because of how the Faunus are treated!"

Weiss snorted. "Oh, and you _really_ think they're flying the flag for Faunus equality by terrorising people?"

"Their methods might be wrong, but it doesn't change the fact that it was the actions of _Humans_ that made them that way!"

"If the White Fang want equality, they should actually work for it," the heiress shot back, "Instead, they do nothing but lie, cheat, kill, and steal! Those Faunus don't want equality, they just want us _gone!_ "

"Woah," Yang interjected, "The White Fang don't speak for all the Faunus. Look at Velvet. She's one of the nicest people at Beacon."

"And does _one_ good person undo everything the White Fang have done?" Weiss snapped back, "I've met _one_ good Faunus, and I've experienced a lot of very, _very_ bad ones. _You_ tell _me_ how I should interpret that!"

"See? _This_ , this is what I'm talking about," Blake gestured to Weiss furiously, "'Those Faunus', 'the Faunus,' you're nothing but a _bigot!_ You're no better than those people who categorise the Faunus as thieves and criminals, before they've even _met_ them, just for the _crime_ of being born a Faunus! If you keep calling them monsters for no reason, eventually, they're going to get sick of it, and _give_ you a reason!"

" _Bigot?_ " Weiss hissed, "I have _plenty_ of reasons to dislike the White Fang. They attack our property. They kill our employees. My friends, my family members, they have _disappeared_ because of them. Every day, my Father would come home, angrier and angrier because of the things the White Fang had done to us. Do you think that was a particularly _enjoyable_ place to grow up as his daughter? Because _it wasn't_."

" _You,_ " Blake actually _laughed_. It was not one of the laughs borne of genuine amusement that Ruby had seldom heard from Blake – this laugh was cold, and harsh, "You think that your petty little problems even _compare_ to what _they_ go through? You had a roof over your head and enough to eat, at least. You should try growing up on the _streets_ , or in a _hovel_. You should try wondering where your next _meal_ is going to come from. You should try having to _hide_ from humans as a child because you're worried they might _attack you_."

"And that gives them an excuse to be murderers? You try to paint the White Fang as some kind of noble freedom fighters, but really, that's all they are. Murderers." Weiss glared.

"But of course, you'd know _all about_ what a murderer looks like, wouldn't you, Schnee?" Blake's voice was so cold it could have emerged from Myrtenaster.

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Weiss demanded furiously.

"It means that your family turned killing Faunus into a _business practice!"_ Blake exploded, "They die _every day_ in those damn mines that earn your profits! Those expensive shoes? That hand-crafted dress? They look white on the surface – but to me, they've been stained _red_ all the way through _,_ from the _blood money_ that bought them!"

"That is a _lie!_ " Weiss shouted, "My family do _not_ treat our own workers that badly! Yes, there are _problems_ ," she allowed, "I'm not stupid enough to think that there aren't. But _not_ to the extent that you seem to think. Not _at all_."

Blake glared. "You don't even _know_ , do you, you spoiled little brat? Maybe you should go and visit one of those mines some day. See if Daddy will _let you_ – let you see those Faunus workers slaving away, working long, hard hours for barely any pay, the conditions they work in as dangerous as the work they do – nothing resembling decent lodgings, not enough food, and you _don't_ want to know what happens if they're unlucky enough to annoy the foreman!"

"That's false propaganda, spread by the White Fang, trying to justify their crimes," Weiss insisted, "And you bought right into it!"

Then Blake did something none of them expected.

She pulled off the small, black bow that had always been an ever-present accessory atop her head.

"TELL ME IT'S A LIE NOW!" She roared in Weiss' face, "TELL ME WHAT I'VE SEEN WITH MY OWN EYES!"

No longer hidden by the black bow, Ruby's first inclination was to think that the little pair of cat ears on Blake's head were really cute. Had the situation not been so serious, she would have expressed it.

The second thing she felt was shock, and annoyance – at herself, for not figuring it out sooner. _Blake was a Faunus_. _That_ was why she was so angry at Weiss' remarks – and _that_ was why she seemed to know so much about how they lived, and what they had been through – she had been through it herself. Ruby felt a surge of horror at the implications Blake had just given about her early life.

Blake, apparently satisfied with having stunned Weiss into silence, stormed towards the bedroom window, opening it up fully.

"Wait, Blake, what are you doing," Yang asked nervously.

"I'm leaving," Blake said simply, "I need to think. I don't know when I'll be back."

"But you can think _here_ ," Ruby pleaded. It sounded just as desperate when it came out of her mouth as it did in her head.

"No," Blake spared a glance at the still-stupefied Weiss, "I can't. Not around her."

She leapt from the window, into the night.

"Blake, wait!" Ruby cried out, alongside her elder sibling.

And like that, one of the members of Team RWBY, her team, that she was sure would last forever, was gone.

Ruby jumped up onto the window to follow her – and felt a hand pulling her back down.

It was Yang. "Ruby, wait. Remember, she can see in the dark," she sighed wearily, "We'll never catch up to her in that," she gestured to the pitch-black night sky.

"I... but..." Ruby felt like she was on the verge of crying. "But she's our team-mate," she finished in a small voice.

"I know," Yang reassured her as she pulled her into a hug, "And tomorrow morning, _first thing_ , the two of us are going to go out and find her, and then we're going to talk this all over, okay?"

"W-wait... the two of you? What about me?" Weiss finally regained her presence of mind and spoke up. Ruby ruthlessly suppressed the little part of her currently screaming that this was Weiss' fault in the first place - after all, she did also have some perfectly good points about the White Fang.

Yang wasn't quite so restrained. "I think _you've_ done enough," she said with a glare.

Blake was gone. The rift between her and Weiss looked almost irreparable at the moment. Yang was also at odds with Weiss – and the worst part of it all was that Ruby felt like she had no control over the situation, no way to fix it, to make things better, to set things back to the way they were.

 _Maybe_ , a little voice in her head whispered, _You aren't fit to be the team leader after all_.

* * *

What Blake didn't know, was that a person who certainly _could_ see her in the dark had spotted her running out.

"Guys... I'm heading out for a moment. I won't be long."

"What, now? It's pitch-black out there."

"I know. I've just spotted something I want to check out. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

* * *

Blake's self control finally slipped as she made it to the fountain in front of the school. Tears started streaming down her face as she came to a stop, and considered everything that had just happened.

She had expected this. From the moment she had been put on a team with Weiss Schnee, she knew, with absolute certainty, that this would have happened. They were always going to end up at odds with each other over the issue of the White Fang and Faunus rights – she was just surprised it had taken as long as it had for the spark to catch fire.

So why did it _hurt_ so much?

 _At least_ , she thought to herself as she silently sobbed into the fountain, _They don't know about my past with the White Fang, yet_.

"I always thought you would look nice without the bow, you know."

* * *

Velvet frowned as she took in the current state of Blake Belladonna. Every time she had spoken to the first-year girl prior to now, she had been calm, collected and cool - playing her emotions very close to her chest.

That was demonstrably not what she could see here. Blake was openly crying – while nobody else could have picked it out, Velvet could see just as clearly in the dark as any Faunus - and she seemed to be on the verge of an outright panic.

"Velvet?" Blake asked quietly.

"Come on," Velvet said with the gentlest smile she could manage, "Whatever it is, you look like you need to talk about it."

Blake hesitated. For a moment, Velvet was worried she would run off. After a short moment, she nodded.

Velvet lead her over to one of the benches nearest to the fountain. They were silent for a moment, as she awkwardly tried to think about how to broach the question. She didn't have to.

"How can you stand it?" Blake asked quietly, looking at the ground.

Velvet sighed sadly, as she then made an educated guess as to what the problem was. "You've finally had trouble with your team-mate, I imagine."

Blake's eyes snapped to her. "How -"

"If it was just some random person you didn't know, I doubt it would have affected you _this much_ ," Velvet said simply, "And I can imagine that Weiss Schnee doesn't have particularly... pleasant, feelings about our people."

"No," Blake sighed, "That's putting it lightly. She really hates the White Fang – and the Faunus by association."

"Understandable," Velvet said. At the surprised look she got from the other girl, she clarified, "Not agreeable, but understandable. There's a lot of bad blood between her family and the Faunus, she's probably been raised from birth to dislike us."

"We got into a big argument," Blake continued, "It got _really vicious_. She was talking like all Faunus were nothing but thieves and liars, I called her a bigot and told her that her family are murderers. She said I was lying about the mines," she clenched her fist, "So I pulled off my bow, shouted in her face, and ran. Like I always run."

"And your _other_ team-mates?" Velvet asked intently, filing away the last statement for later, "What did they do? Did they agree with her?"

"They... no," Blake thought about it, "Yang actually stuck up for me at one point. When Weiss was starting to get onto the Faunus, she said the White Fang weren't the same as all of us. She gave you as an example."

Well. Velvet felt earnestly touched – she had barely spoken to Yang Xaio Long. She tried her best to stop the embarrassed blush from creeping up her face.

"Ruby didn't say anything," Blake recalled, "She just... stood there, like she didn't really know what to do. I don't know who she agreed with."

Velvet thought over what she knew of the other girl. "Maybe she just didn't want to pick sides."

"But she _should_ have picked a side," Blake scowled, "When one side was obviously wrong."

"Maybe," Velvet allowed, "But it takes a special kind of bravery to go against your friends, even if you know they're wrong, Blake. You shouldn't judge her too harshly for not wanting to pick sides between you."

"...I suppose." Blake was silent for another moment. "You didn't answer my first question," she said, "How do you stand it? How do you take the insults, the abuse, the bullying?"

Velvet thought about it. "All right. I'll let you in on my big secret," she leaned in conspiratorially, _"I can't."_

"You can't?" Blake sounded confused.

"I can't stand it," Velvet confided, "There are days when I just want to _snap_ and start raging against the _entire_ _world_. Days when I want to turn around after Cardin Winchester pulls on my ears and kick him so hard his teeth fly out – and then do the same to the rest of his team. I could do it, too," she said modestly, "I don't like to brag, but I have the skill."

"So what stops you?" Blake asked, "Is it not wanting to sink to their level?"

Velvet shook her head. "No. You are _not_ sinking to their level merely by defending yourself, Blake. You should never think that. You would only be sinking to their level if you attacked them first."

Blake looked puzzled. "Then why?"

"Well," Velvet sat back on the bench and looked up at the stars, "Whenever I feel the urge to hit back, I ask myself a simple question. I think to myself, 'If you start this, Velvet... do you think you'll be able to stop?'"

"And?" Blake leaned in.

"It's always the same answer," Velvet gave a sad smile, " _I don't know_. So... it's better not to risk it, really."

Blake looked down again. "I don't think I could stop," she finally said, "But I don't want to become a monster," she finished in a quiet voice, "Not again."

Not again? What did – oh. _Oh_.

Well, if she had just implied what Velvet thought she had, _that_ certainly made things a bit more complicated.

"More than anything, though," she began, trying to steer things back toward safer ground, "What helps me get through it all are my team-mates. Knowing that they have my back, that they'll be there for me no matter what, can make me feel like I could brush off all the insults in the world."

"I'm not sure if I have that any more," Blake said miserably.

"That's not what you just told me," Velvet pointed out gently, "I remember you said Yang defended your position. And while Ruby might not have said anything," she thought about what she knew of Ruby again, "Does she _really_ strike you as someone who would hate you over your species?"

Blake shook her head. "No," she said, almost dryly, "I'm not sure I could ever picture Ruby hating anyone for anything. But that doesn't change the huge problem with Weiss."

Velvet mulled it over. "Well, Coco always says, 'Every problem has a solution'," she decided it wouldn't be very helpful to describe just _what_ Coco's solution to the problem would likely be.

"And what's the solution here?" Blake asked desperately, "Because I can't see it."

"Well," Velvet nearly panicked as she was put on the spot, "Prove her wrong?"

"Prove her wrong?"

"Yes," Velvet said, gaining some more confidence, "She has her opinions on the Faunus – prove to her that she's wrong."

"I see," Blake hummed thoughtfully.

"Honestly... I don't _know_ exactly what you should do," Velvet admitted, "I only came out here on a hunch. I don't have all the answers. I don't even think I have _many_ of them. But I'd still suggest you speak to your friends, if you're ready for it."

"I don't think I am," Blake said after a moment of thought.

"Well, our door is open," Velvet offered, "Even if you don't want to go back to your team, I don't want you running off into the night alone. At the very least, sleep in our room for the night, and decide what you want to do in the morning."

Blake seemed to consider it.

"I'm not sure," she muttered, "Velvet... do you think the White Fang are really behind all of these robberies everyone is talking about?"

Velvet blinked at the sudden change in subject. "I'm not sure," she replied cautiously, "It certainly seems like something they're capable of, but we didn't find any hidden stockpiles of dust at the base we raided."

"The base you raided?" Blake perked up "I heard about that. That's what started our argument."

Velvet winced. "Well, sorry... but yes, that was our mission. We raided one of their bases, an old abandoned warehouse."

"They were in the city?" Blake sounded worried. Velvet, given her earlier suspicions, had a feeling she knew why.

"Just at the outskirts," Velvet tried to reassure her, "They had a base over in the old industrial district, but don't worry, it's gone."

Blake seemed deep in thought. Her eyes narrowed, then suddenly, she stood up, "Thank you for your offer, Velvet, but I've got something I need to do."

"Blake," Velvet said in concern, "What are you thinking."

"It's like you said," Blake's voice hardened with resolve, "If I want to make this better, I need to prove her wrong. So that's what I'll do. Thank you for speaking to me, Velvet. You were a great help."

"Blake, wait," Velvet began hastily, "At least stay the-" Blake's form seemed to flicker away, leaving a still copy in her place, that then flickered out of existence, "-night," she sighed, "Oh, dear. I'm not sure she took that in quite the way I intended it."

She mulled over her options. She could try going after her – but catching her, even as a Faunus, was unlikely, considering Blake was apparently adept at staying hidden when she wanted to, and she had a head start. On top of that, Velver had a rough idea of where she was going to be heading anyway. She decided to head back to her room and sleep on it.

When she made it back to her room and opened the door, the rest of her team was sitting, waiting for her.

Yatsuhashi broke the silence. "Well? Did you accomplish what you intended?"

Velvet frowned. "I'm not sure," she admitted, "But I hope so."

* * *

Blake's thoughts were racing as she traversed through the darkness, via the rooftops of Vale, towards the old industrial district.

She knew what she had to do. She would prove Weiss wrong, one way or the other. She would either prove that the White Fang _weren't_ the ones committing the huge crime spree... or, if it turned out they _were..._ she would prove that _not_ all Faunus were like them, that there _were_ Faunus who were willing to do what was right.

No matter what.

* * *

 **A/N: My respect goes out to any author who has re-written that argument between Blake and Weiss. It's seriously difficult to do so, stay close to canon characterisation and motivations, and not seem like you're bashing Weiss. I hope I struck the right balance, here.**

 **Edited the argument between Blake and Weiss, after getting some feedback. I made Weiss too racist, oh dear. Hopefully, things look a bit better now.**


	14. A Heist Begins

**A/N: This update is a bit later than usual - real-life reared it's ugly head and interrupted my writing this chapter, thankfully, all is now well, so enjoy (hopefully). Also, a big thanks to Zam of Spacebattles, who has graciously agreed to beta-read my chapters for me.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. It belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Occasionally, throughout history, individuals arise from the masses who can be described as 'humble geniuses'. Those men, and women, who are unrivalled amongst their peers in their brilliance, and yet did not lord their intellectual supremacy over their fellows.

"Several weeks, and we haven't heard a thing from our furry friends. _This_ is why I do the thinking around here. Who would ever think to look for us, this close to their old hideout? Nobody. Aren't you just glad you decided to join up with someone as clearly talented as I am?"

Roman Torchwick did not quite fit all of the requirements for this category.

Junior's organisation had neatly transitioned into one of the old warehouses in the industrial district – it was large, spacious, run-down, had offices for private meetings, and was hooked up to the power grid - everything a criminal organisation could possibly need. Roman had 'acquired' the paperwork through naturally unsavoury means, so it was even above board - or, at least, it had the initial appearance of being above board. Roman's reasoning had been sound at the time – the White Fang would presumably never expect them to do something as risky as to set up so close to their recently-vacated stomping ground, and thus far, he had been correct.

"Are you done?" Junior asked in irritation.

"If you mean, 'am I finished asserting my intellectual superiority'?" Roman asked lightly. "Then no, I'll never be done. If, however, you want to know if I'll take a temporary _reprieve_ of reminding you all about it, then yes. On to the plan."

Junior, Melanie and Miltia, Neo, and a number of Junior's men were present in the main room of the warehouse.

"First of all, transport," Roman paused, "Junior. Tell us what we've got."

"We've got an eighteen-wheeler, and three large vans," Junior responded, "The truck will be enough to carry a hell of a lot of Dust, while the vans are enough to bring fifteen guys, plus us. They're painted over in company colours, different companies so things don't look suspicious."

"Good," Roman nodded, "That was the final piece in the puzzle. Now, we all know the basics. We're going in, we're stealing that shipment before the White Fang do, and we're pinning it on them. They're getting all of the blame, and none of the goodies. Is that part clear?"

Everyone nodded.

"Excellent... I wouldn't want to have to explain it again. Now, Junior and I will be overseeing the actual transfer of the goods from the cargo holders to the truck. You," he indicated to the men, "Will be with us. We don't go in until after the girls are finished. On that note," he indicated to Neo, Melanie and Miltia.

"You three are our muscle. Neo thinks you two have improved enough to be of use, here, so you'll be with her – there's private security around. Take them out, quick and quiet – but don't keep it clean, remember who we're pinning this on. If the White Fang or our mysterious friends show up, you fight or flee – fight if it's just the minions, or one of those kids, flee if it's Cinder. None of us can tangle with her, so if she shows up, we blow up what we can and bug out. Otherwise, we paint a couple of those nice little emblems the White Fang like to leave lying around before we leave. Everyone clear?"

Another round of nods followed his question. "Well, well, it seems you _can_ learn," he remarked appraisingly, "Now then, get your gear and get those vehicles ready. We leave in ten and I want this to go as smoothly as possible."

With that, the men began scurrying around, busying themselves with last-minute preparations. Roman thought over the plan – it was basic, but solid, and if it went off without a hitch, it would hopefully deal a big blow to the White Fang and Cinder's operation.

In the event that it _didn't_ go off without a hitch, on the other hand – he shared a meaningful look with Neo. They were fully prepared to ditch everyone in the event that something did go wrong.

It was, after all, the first rule of criminal activity: Always have a way out.

* * *

Blake's head perked up as she heard the roar of an engine.

She had made her way to the old industrial district overnight, in an attempt to potentially find a clue that would lead her to the White Fang. She knew from her former time as a member that there was a warehouse here where the White Fang would host regular faction meetings, mainly used to recruit new members. It wasn't the best starting point for an investigation, of course, but it was better than nothing.

At least, that's what she kept telling herself – so far, nothing was all she had found.

Still, there wasn't normally a lot of activity around this district, so the noise of a large engine was somewhat unusual. She quietly hopped off the roof she had previously been waiting on, and made her way over to another.

Sneaking forward, she reached the edge of the roof, and narrowed her eyes. A van was pulling out of a large, open warehouse door. Peering, she could see three other vehicles inside – two other vans and a huge truck. All in different company colours.

She remained in place as a hidden observer as the first van exited the street – taking note of the direction it turned in.

 _Left._

After a short pause, a second Van pulled out, and headed out of the street.

 _Left again._

When the third van did the same, she made up her mind to follow the larger truck. If this was some kind of illicit operation, the truck would be the most important vehicle, and while she was no Ruby, she was certainly fast enough to follow a large, unwieldy vehicle like the one she was currently watching clumsily find its way out of the warehouse.

* * *

"All right," Adam addressed his troops, "I'll keep this short. We all know the plan. We all know what we're doing. We all know what success here means for us. If everything goes the way we think it will, there shouldn't be much in the way of trouble, but that doesn't mean you get complacent. Grab your gear, get into your vehicles, and let's do this."

A few minutes later, four Bullhead Dropships took to the sky – and headed in the direction of the docks.

* * *

The first van, this one in the guise of a cleaning company, pulled to a stop close to the docks. Neo, Melanie and Miltia hopped out of the back, and silently slipped in.

Neo signalled to the twins, who nodded, and split up. She then advanced further in, until she spotted her first guard. The man was wearing fairly comprehensive, grey armour, and was equipped with a rifle. Neo also spotted a baton at his hip.

Creeping up behind him, Neo's hand shot up and covered his mouth, dragging him down. Her arm clamped tightly around the frantically struggling man's neck, and stayed there, until, after about a minute or so, he stopped moving. Shuffling the body aside to keep it out of sight, she moved on.

She took out three more guards in a similar fashion over the course of the next few minutes, before she met up with Melanie and Miltia further into the Docks. She held up four fingers. Melanie held up three, while Miltia held up four, shooting her sister a victorious smug look, much to the other's annoyance.

Neo did a quick mental tally. Eleven. That was how many they had counted when they cased the place. Nodding, she typed out a quick message on her scroll.

* * *

Roman checked the message he had received from Neo. **Done.**

It was short, and to the point. _Like the person who sent it_ , Roman idly mused.

"They're done in there," he said briefly, stepping out of the van, "Let's go."

Junior nodded, and left with him – his men swiftly following suit. The pair made their way over to the dock's driving bay – where their truck was just pulling in.

"All right, come on, you know the drill," Roman urged, "Get those Schnee containers open, and grab that Dust! We're burning daylight, here."

Briefly eying his scroll, he quickly typed out a response to Neo. **Keep an eye out.**

* * *

Blake felt oddly vindicated as she observed the clearly human group start loading Dust from the Schnee Dust Company cargo containers into the truck she had followed.

 _I knew it wasn't the White Fang_ , she thought, _They don't need that much Dust. Now I just need to..._

She paused. Her first instinct was to charge in and apprehend them immediately – but then her conversation last night sprang to mind.

" _I don't think I have that any more," Blake said miserably._

" _That's not what you just told me," Velvet pointed out gently._

She _did_ still have her team, didn't she? And now that she had calmed down somewhat from last night, she was thinking a little more rationally.

Thinking it over furiously for a few moments, she pulled out her scroll with no small amount of trepidation.

* * *

Ruby had awoken that morning to a knock on the door to their room. Dazed from sleep for a moment, and taking a second to register Blake's empty bed, she shot to answer it, hoping it was their team-mate, returning.

Unfortunately, it was not the faunus girl she was hoping for. It turned out to be an apologetic-looking Velvet, who explained that she had caught Blake on the way out and spoken to her, but, while she did manage to calm her down somewhat, was unable to convince her not to leave.

She then told the three eagerly attentive members of team RWBY roughly where Blake was likely to be heading, before apologising that she couldn't help them look, due to team CFVY being pulled away for a mission. She looked genuinely crushed that she couldn't help them out more, but Ruby merely told her it was fine and thanked her for doing what she had.

From there, they hatched a plan – they would split up. Yang would head down toward the old industrial district, where Velvet believed Blake would have been heading last night, and look around there for her. Ruby, being the fastest, would stay near the centre of town, so she could more quickly make her way to either of the others if Blake turned up, or to Blake herself if she called. Weiss would stay at the school, in case Blake reappeared there. Ruby's partner didn't look particularly happy about this, seeming extremely eager to get out and help look, but grudgingly accepted the reasoning that someone needed to be on hand if Blake went straight back to Beacon.

It was now getting closer to noon, and there was still no sign of her team-mate, despite Ruby having been out for three hours. She wondered what she would actually say if she found her. Somehow, she didn't think 'Hey, Blake, I know you and Weiss just had a huge fight, and you ran away, but let's forget about all that and we can all be best friends again,' was going to cut it.

She was so caught up in her musings that she didn't pay much attention to where she was going until it was too late.

She tumbled to the ground in a heap as she collided with someone unusually solid. Taking a moment to get her bearings, she then realised what had happened. "Ah! I'm sorry! Are you okay?" She asked frantically.

It was a girl, perhaps around her age, with orange hair, freckles and wearing a white and green dress. "Thank you for your concern, but I am wonderful!"

Ruby blinked. "Uh... okay. That's good." She pulled herself to her feet. After a moment, she realised that the other girl had not done the same. "Erm... are you sure you're okay? It's just... you're not getting up," she asked hesitantly.

In response, the other girl hopped to her feet. "My name is Penny! It is wonderful to meet you!"

"Hi Penny," Ruby replied, "I'm Ruby."

"It is wonderful to meet you!" Penny repeated.

Ruby mentally mused that this girl seemed to think a lot of things were wonderful. "Okay... uh, sorry for running into you, but I've got to go. See you, friend."

She turned to leave.

"What did you call me?"

Ruby's eyes widened as Penny approached her intently. "What?" she frantically went over the last brief conversation to see if she had said anything that could be seen as offensive.

"Do you really think I'm your _friend?_ "

Ruby, put on the spot with no form of backup available, panicked. "...Sure?"

"Oh, wonderful!" Penny clapped her hands together, "I've never had a _friend_ before!"

Ruby would later look back on this moment as the beginning of what was assuredly one of her oddest friendships. A quick conversation revealed that Penny was here to compete in the Vytal Festival, alongside the other schools. In return, Penny had asked what Ruby was doing.

"So your friends had a fight? I thought friends didn't fight," Penny sounded confused.

"Yeah... me too," Ruby replied despondently, "But Blake and Weiss... have really different opinions on a pretty important thing."

"Is it," Penny's voice dropped to a hushed whisper, " _Boys?_ "

"No!" Ruby's face turned red, "Nothing like that! It was something more serious. But that's why we're out here looking for her, so we can fix things up." _Somehow_.

"Well, do not worry, friend Ruby!" Penny declared, "I will not rest until we have found your friend Blake!"

Ruby was oddly touched. "That's... really nice of you. Thanks, Penny."

At that moment, her scroll went off. Quickly pulling it out of her bag, she felt her heart skip a beat when she realised who was calling.

"Blake?! Is that you? Where are you!?" Ruby asked frantically.

" _Yes, it's me,"_ Blake's voice was hushed and she sounded hurried, _"Look, I'm sorry for running away, and I promise I'll explain everything later, but I've found the people who are stealing the Dust, and I'm going to stop them. I might need help."_

"Okay," Ruby realised she had responded without even thinking about it, "Where are you?"

" _Wha-_ _just like that?"_ she heard Blake give an indecipherable sigh on the other end of the phone, _"Okay. I'm at the Docks. I need to stop them now, or they might get away."_

"Don't do anything reckless," Ruby fretted, "We need you in one piece so Yang can chew you out for running away and worrying us all."

" _I – right,_ " Blake gave a self-depreciating chuckle, " _Sorry Ruby, got to go now."_

"See you soon," Ruby said belatedly, as Blake had already hung up. Ruby quickly dialled another number.

" _Ruby?"_

"Yang, she called me! She said she didn't have time to explain but she was down at the docks and was about to stop a robbery and might need our help, I'll see you there!"

" _Wait, what?"_ Ruby mentally apologised to her sister as she ended the call and dialled Weiss.

" _Ruby? Is there news?"_ Weiss asked quickly.

"Yes," Ruby replied quickly, "She called, she's at the docks, she said she found the Dust robbers and she's going to stop them, get there as quickly as you can!"

" _Wait, are you seri-"_

Ruby ended the call, wincing at the thought of the telling off she was going to get from Weiss when they next met up.

"Penny, I'm sorry, but I think my friend might be in trouble, so I need to go and help her," Ruby said apologetically.

"Then I will come with you and assist you, friend Ruby!" Penny responded, smiling widely, "I am combat ready!"

Ruby really didn't have the time to argue about this. "I – oh, fine, but I hope you can keep up!"

"Keep up? Oh!" Penny marvelled, pursuing Ruby as she raced off, "Is this a _game?_ I've never played a _game_ with a _friend_ before!"

* * *

Roman watched in approval as the last of the containers was loaded onto the truck. "Good," he nodded, "That's the last of them."

He typed out a quick message to Neo. **Any sign of trouble?**

The response came quickly. **No.**

"Well, Junior, I think it's time for the boys to do a little... decorating, and then get out of here and enjoy the products of a hard-won... well, a victory," Roman said, before Junior's eyes widened and Roman became keenly aware of the blade being held to his throat, "I just had to say it, didn't I? For f-"

"Don't. Move." The voice was fairly young, and female. Who'd be stupid enough to try and take on a large group of criminals? A trainee huntress, perhaps? His mind flicked back to the trainee huntresses who had poked their nose into the underworld's affairs before.

"Look, kid," he began, "Whatever you think is going on here, you're probably very wrong."

"I know exactly what's going on," she retorted sharply, "You're going to steal this Dust, and frame the White Fang for it."

"See? You don't... wait, what?" Roman paused.

"You're the ones who have been stealing all the Dust around town and making everyone think it was the White Fang," she hissed.

Roman's mind nearly went blank. Of all the times this could happen, it happened _now_ , when he was actually guilty of doing _exactly that?_ "I don't think I've ever heard anyone be so correct and yet so completely wrong at the same time," he said in disbelief, "Look, girlie. I'm doing this to stop the White Fang from getting their hands on all of this Dust. They're the ones who have been stealing the stuff like it's running out. Which, incidentally, thanks to them, it is," he mused idly, "So really, you're working against the greater good, here. I'm doing this to strike a blow against the White Fang."

"Really?" she replied dryly, "And I should believe you... _why?_ "

"Well..." Roman's eyes shot up as a familiar sound came from overhead, "There's always _that_."

Roman felt his heart drop as four drop-ships, similar to the one he had seen back at the White Fang base, descended from the sky. They could still salvage this, however – they just had to get the hell out of here, now. "Junior!" he snapped at the man, who had been watching his exchange with Roman's unknown captor cautiously.

"Yeah, about that," Junior replied simply, "I guess I forgot to tell you, Torchwick. There's been a change of plans."

* * *

Neo's eyes narrowed as she saw the four drop-ships close in on Roman's position. She began making her way over – but paused, as Melanie and Miltia moved to stand in her way.

"Yeah, about that 'saving him' thing," Melanie began.

"You probably want to re-think that," Miltia continued.

"You see, we really want him dead, and if you try to interfere, you're going with him," they both finished.

Neo sighed in exasperation, and gave them a look as if to say 'really?'

* * *

Roman's thoughts were racing. "What are you talking about now, Junior?"

"When you think about it, Torchwick," Junior continued, "This entire situation is just one big opportunity, isn't it? I mean, think about it, you, destitute-"

* * *

"-detained," Melanie added,

"Or dead," Miltia finished.

Neo silently decided that if Torchwick survived this situation, she would murder him herself.

* * *

"Yeah, you should really be careful about what you say in a car _my_ boys have worked on," Junior grinned smugly, "There's a reason they do such a thorough job."

"Son of a bitch," Roman said, almost approvingly, despite his unfortunate position, "And you couldn't even be polite enough to wait until I'd betrayed you first."

"It's just like they say," a new voice interrupted, and Roman heard a gasp from behind him, "There's no honour among thieves."

It was a tall young man in a tribal-patterned black coat – the upper half of his face was covered by a white mask, that lay underneath a head of spiked, red hair. He gave the appearance of someone who was rather important among the White Fang – which Roman presumed he belonged to. He looked at Junior.

"You've come through on your end of our bargain," he said shortly, "That's good. Any treachery and I would have had to kill you all."

Junior nodded with a gulp.

Roman's attention was then drawn to the truck – which the drop-ships were currently hovering over. Two devices dropped from each on a long, metallic cord – rappels, perhaps? Then they attached to the long cargo-container on the truck, and Roman realised what they were.

 _Clamps. We gathered everything for them in a nice little box to carry home_ , he thought with grudging respect, _Damn, have I been outplayed_.

"If you're hoping your little psycho friend will save you," Junior informed him, cutting into his musings, "She's being held up by the girls."

Roman snorted. "You really think those two can hold up Neo?"

"Now they've found their semblances, they can."

Roman internally grimaced at that particularly unwelcome bit of news, but decided to try and keep them talking. "So... what happens now?"

The young man ignored him, and instead turned to look behind him. "Blake. Don't get involved in this. Walk away now and leave, and I'll forget that I ever saw you here."

The sword at his throat fell away, and Roman felt his curiosity, and with it, his hope, perk up once again.


	15. A Lot of Trouble

**A/N: Sorry for the later-than-usual update, folks. I fell into the old author trap of never quite being happy with the chapter and kept tweaking it here and there and here again and there again... you get the idea.**

 **Once again, a big thanks, as this chapter would likely look a lot worse if not for the diligent beta-reading of Zam from Spacebattles!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, it belongs entirely to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

"How on Remnant am I going to get there quickly enough to help?"

This was the line Weiss Schnee was frantically muttering to herself as she raced out of the school. The docks were some distance away, at the other end of the city even. There was little chance she could run and get there in time to help...

Her attention was drawn by a noise from above – and suddenly, she had a plan.

And surely she wouldn't get _that_ many detentions for it, right?

* * *

Neo shook her head in exasperation as the two Twins prepared to fight her, as though they honestly thought they could win.

In any other situation, she may have found it amusing. Given the circumstances, however, she really, really didn't. She took a step forwards, intending to put the pair down quickly.

Miltia began to make a move. Neo tensed in readiness – but Miltia didn't move forward. She turned to her left, and swung directly at Melanie's torso.

It was such a bizarre action to take in a fight that Neo stopped outright in shock.

"Now!"

That shock was magnified and added to a not-insignificant amount of confusion when Miltia's claw collided not with her sister's chest, but with Neo's face. Taken completely off guard by the impact, Neo was bowled over and sent tumbling before she rolled to her feet. Miltia charged at her this time – ducking low and attempting an uppercut. Neo's parasol went low to block the attack – it never came.

"Now!"

Instead, accompanied by a shout of exertion, Melanie's leg smashed down on her from above, once again catching her off-guard, and sending her bouncing heavily off the ground. Neo flipped backwards onto her feet, and regarded the pair warily, one, simple thought running through her mind:

 _What the hell was that?_

"Yeah, I guess we forgot to tell you," Melanie drawled.

"But we discovered our semblances," Miltia smirked, "Sucks to be you, huh."

Well. _That_ changed the equation somewhat.

Neo's mind raced through the previous exchange, trying to work out what it was they were actually doing. She decided to try and take the offensive, and draw it out of them. Darting forward, she moved to attack Melanie, feinting high, and allowing herself a moment of satisfaction when her target took the bait, before ducking into a low kick.

"Now!"

But, just like before, things changed. Her kick was blocked by the crossed arms of the kneeling Miltia, shortly before she was forced to cartwheel back by a vicious kick from Melanie.

 _They can switch positions with each other? But then..._

"Now!"

Just as she got to her feet, the world changed again – and she was standing right to Miltia, barely managing to react in time to parry a group of quick strikes, before lashing out with her parasol and forcing the other girl to back off.

 _No. They're the same power, but slightly different. Miltia can switch her position with Melanie, and Melanie can switch her position with me, maybe?_

It was quite the infuriating pair of semblances to fight against – particularly for a technical fighter like Neo, who was really, really not keen on the idea of _not_ being in control of her position on the battlefield.

That didn't mean she didn't have an idea of how to beat it, though.

In an instant, she had covered half of the ground between her and the twins.

"Now!"

She grinned.

"It didn't-"

 _So you need to know_ _exactly_ _where I am to switch places with me. Good to know._ She feinted with a low attack, this time – lashing out with her parasol toward Melanie. Miltia anticipated the feint, and switched with Melanie at the last moment, holding a high guard in preparation to block Neo's attack.

It wasn't a feint. Her parasol smashed into the other girl's gut, knocking the wind out of her and sending her flying backwards. Taking advantage of Melanie's momentary surprise, she leapt up onto the other girl's shoulders, the momentum of the jump forcing her down to the ground. Neo turned the jump into a roll just as they were about to hit the hard surface, and, wrapping her legs around her opponent's upper body, proceeded to throw Melanie, sending her tumbling across the ground with a startled yelp of pain. Neo came to a stop on one knee.

 _And this switching places trick can be just as much of a gamble for you as it can for me._

The pair pulled themselves to their feet. She shot them a challenging smirk.

Melanie looked incensed for a moment, before she seemingly noticed something, and smirked back. "Yeah, I wouldn't sit there with that look on your face if I were you."

Miltia joined in with the other's amusement. "You should probably check your face."

 _My face? What?_ Neo then felt a strange wet sensation trickling down her forehead. She raised her hand to feel it, and stared at the red liquid dripping from her fingers.

"First blood," Melanie said smugly.

"Looks like your training paid off, _Sarge_ ," Miltia gloated.

Both took a step forward.

"Little girls like to run their mouths."

They paused, eyes widening in shock.

"They won't enjoy _pissing me off_ enough to make me want to run _mine_."

* * *

The area near the vehicle bay had gone silent for a moment, with the appearance of the new arrival.

"It... really is you, isn't it?" Blake finally asked, moving away from the criminal she had previously been holding hostage, "You're the ones who have been stealing all of the dust. Why? Why would you do this?"

"I told you to get out of here," Adam replied shortly, "I'd recommend you do so, now."

"I'm not going anywhere until I know what's going on," Blake clenched her fist around the grip of Gambol Shroud, "The White Fang's descent into thievery and murder was the reason I left, and now you want me to just walk away?"

Adam was silent. "And this is why I never wanted to see you again," he said after a moment.

"I didn't think you would be so eager to throw away our friendship," Blake responded quietly.

"I never wanted to see you again because of our friendship," he growled, "Blake. Did you ever wonder why we never went after you? Why we didn't hunt you down after your desertion?"

Blake _had_ wondered about it. A lot. "I assumed you couldn't find me."

"Please," Adam snorted, "You're not that good at staying hidden."

"Okay, then," Blake snapped, "Why?"

"Because I stopped them."

Blake reeled back in shock.

"Because I thought, no, I _hoped_ that you left because you were tired of fighting. That, I could have accepted. That, I could have _understood_. That, I wouldn't have begrudged you. I never wanted to see you again because if I hadn't, it meant you were lying low, and living out a quiet life."

"Or I could have been dead."

"I have enough faith in your ability to survive," Adam responded evenly, "I taught you, remember."

 _How could I forget._ "I didn't leave because I wanted a quiet life," Blake shook her head, "I left because what we were doing was wrong! Killing, stealing, terrorising people – it's not the right way!"

"It's the _only_ way," her former mentor replied angrily, "The Humans have proven, again and again that they will not give our people the equality that should have been ours by right! Negotiating did not work. Peaceful protest fell on deaf ears," he took a deep breath to calm himself, "No. Violence is the only thing they'll listen to. You know it. Our methods are working."

"You're no better than they are," Blake told him sadly.

"We are defending ourselves," Adam growled, "We did not start this. But we will finish it. So what now, Blake? What will you do? Raise your weapon against the people who once called you their sister? The ones who took you in, fed you, put a roof over your head? Will you try to cut me down with the skills I taught you?"

Blake felt herself falter. Her sword and sheath lowered to her sides. Then, involuntarily, she recalled a throwaway line from the conversation she had been in with Velvet the night before.

" _It takes a special kind of bravery to go against your friends, even if you know they're wrong, Blake."_

She took a deep breath. Her sword and sheath rose again, and she took a step forward.

"Well, Blake?" Adam watched her calmly, "What are you going to do?"

"Be a special kind of brave, I guess," she muttered.

Any reply he could have made was cut off as a clone appeared in her place, and her sword descended towards his head.

* * *

 _Finally, she attacks him_ , Roman internally praised as his new-found distraction engaged the White Fang leader, who he gathered was called 'Adam', _I was starting to wonder if I'd wandered onto the set of a Cherry Springer episode._ He paused. _Actually_ , _that could still be happening._

With that person occupied, he could now direct his attention onto other matters.

Like the missiles currently flying toward him.

He jumped behind one of the cargo containers surrounding the vehicle bay, bracing himself as the explosions went off nearby. Leaning out of his cover for a moment, he returned fire with Melodic Cudgel, firing a series of explosive rounds at Junior, sending the man scrambling for cover behind another container as the ground he had previously been standing on exploded.

"You're a goner, Torchwick," Junior called out, "No little girl to save you now!"

"If you didn't notice, you idiot," Roman replied back, "One just did. But," he smirked as he stepped out of cover, "I don't need anyone's help to put you down."

In response, the Bartender leaned out and fired another set of missiles at him. Roman reacted instantly, Melodic Cudgel snapping up and firing off four explosive flares. The rounds intercepted the missiles in mid-flight – due to the explosive radius of his weapon, he only needed to fire three rounds to stop Junior's attack. The fourth collided with the wall Junior was currently peering out of, sending him flying across the ground.

Junior growled as he pulled himself to his feet. "Get him!"

His men charged at Roman from all directions. They had brought around fifteen of them for the heist.

He didn't even bother suppressing his chuckle - that wasn't even enough to slow him down.

A round from his weapon detonated in the midst of three of them, sending them flying. Three more lined up, pulled their pistols and started firing at him. His cane shot into motion, deflecting each bullet with relative ease. Then, in an instant, the curved handle of his cane shot out, grasping onto the collar of the man furthest to the left, before a quick jerk of Roman's arm sent him tumbling into his fellows. The handle snapped back into place in time for Roman to block the blow of another man – who dropped like a stone when Roman kneed him hard in the crotch.

He winced internally. _Wow, you know, that might be the first thing I actually regret doing_. He fired off two more rounds at the ground with Melodic Cudgel, the explosives stopping the advance of another group of Junior's goons, giving Roman time to focus on two others coming from behind him. Roman laughed as the first went down, gasping for air from the edge of Melodic Cudgel slamming into his throat. The second was knocked out instantly by a hit to the temple.

Roman turned around, cane flipping in his hand again to wrap around the leg of another goon, yanking it out from under him and putting him on his back. Before the man could get up again, Roman's foot smashed his head into the ground. Getting bored of beating down the crooks at this point and wanting to end things quickly, Roman opened fire again, swiftly dispatching the remaining minions.

Junior stared in shock.

"What," Roman rolled his eyes, "Did you really think that just because I make Neo do all my heavy lifting, I can't fight?"

In response, Junior's missile launcher folded into the form of a large club, and, with a growl, he charged at Roman.

* * *

Adam's sword flashed as he parried several quick strikes from Blake, before attempting a counter – which did nothing but slice through another doppelganger. So far, she was keeping him on the defensive – a sound idea, but he wondered how long she could keep up this kind of pressure.

Front. Left. Above. Right. Behind. Like a flurry of blades, Blake attacked him from all sides, trying to find a way through and put him down quickly, but was having great difficulty in doing so.

Seeing an opportunity, he counter-attacked – his slice extending well past the end of his sword thanks to Aura and cutting through the air around her position. Once again, all he managed to hit was a clone – she was making heavy use of her semblance again, as she did when she had fought on his side.

 _There's a problem with doing that against someone who knows you too well._

He observed her more closely. He saw her eyes flick upward for an instant, and his sword flashed out. Blake's clone was left behind – but her actual body appeared right in the way of his slash, and she was sent flying with a startled cry as she barely brought her sword up in time to block.

"You still haven't paid attention to what I taught you," he said condescendingly.

He knew how far she could move with that trick – and if she left a tell as to where she'd move, he would literally know where she would be before she got there. It wouldn't be a problem against anyone else, but against him? It was a fatal error.

She pulled herself to her feet, and eyed him warily, before charging him once again, presumably hoping to regain the initiative.

He saw her eyes flick to the right. Turning, his sword flashed out...

And hit nothing.

His own eyes widened behind his mask as he was hit in the back several times in short succession by her dual swords – he frantically turned to defend himself, but she was gone again. He took another hit to the back, before, with a growl of exertion, he became a whirlwind of motion, sword flashing around in every possible direction. Blake was forced to back away, temporarily, but had still scored significant hits.

"Or maybe I did," she retorted in satisfaction.

 _She reeled me in. Clever._

He considered the previous exchange in begrudging approval. Either she had realised her mistake quickly enough and capitalised on it, or she remembered that he knew her tells, lured him in by letting him score that hit and used it against him.

Either way, it was impressive.

"I thought leaving would have turned you soft," he chuckled darkly, "But it won't matter."

She growled, and launched herself at him again. This time, her eyes didn't leave him.

His reactions were put to the test as she began hitting him from several different angles. Adam turned, span, twisted and slashed to parry or avoid her furious series of attacks – until she attacked from his front, and overextended herself. He leapt on the opportunity, sword flashing out as he turned to the left, knocking the sword part of Gambol Shroud out of her hand. Using the motion, he turned full-circle and slashed out at the hand holding the sheath with a roar. Her second blade tumbled out of her hand and toward the ground.

He had disarmed her. It was ov-

 _WHAM._

He was almost sent reeling by the fist that smashed into his cheek. The following blows succeeded in doing so, as Blake's fists savagely mauled his face, extracting grunts of pain.

Finally getting his bearings after her unexpected brawling, his own hand lashed out and wrapped around her neck like an iron vice. Disorientated by the sudden loss of air, her assault stopped for a moment.

Not giving her any time to regroup, he lifted Blake bodily off the ground by her neck, and with a shout, threw her several meters into the air. His sword exited it's sheath again – the aura-extended slash this time striking true, and landing a direct hit on Blake, who cried out in pain, before hitting the ground. She didn't move.

He paused for a moment, expecting some kind of feint or trick. When it seemed that none were forthcoming, he cautiously began to approach her.

The first thing he noticed was the blood slowly trickling out from her side. _Got through her aura. It's done._

She was still alive, only unconscious. He would have to change that.

No matter how much he didn't want to.

He looked down at the beaten form of his friend and protégé, and sighed. "I didn't want it to come to this."

He raised his sheath, and grasped the handle of his sword.

"I'm sorry."

And that was when all hell broke loose.

* * *

Ruby frantically scaled the last roof leading to the docks, eyes flicking left and right in an attempt to find her team-mate. Finally, her eyes reached what looked like the parking bay for vehicles.

She caught sight of Blake, lying on the ground, not moving.

She saw an unknown man, standing above her, holding a sword.

She saw _red_.

* * *

"NO!"

The first indication Adam had that there was something wrong was when something hit him hard enough to knock him flying across the length of the vehicle bay, tumbling across the ground until he managed to roll to his feet.

The second indication, once he got up, was the new face standing protectively above the fallen Blake, glaring at him furiously. He vaguely recognised the features – red clothes, giant scythe, he believed she had stopped one of Cinder's robberies, once. Apparently she was Blake's friend. Apparently, it was a small world.

"Get away from my _team-mate!"_

Then she was gone.

 _What the -_

Only instinct and experience saved him as he desperately brought his sword up in time to block the giant bladed weapon that was suddenly bearing down on him. He tried to counter-attack, but she was long gone – standing back, several meters away, before coming in for another run.

He tried to block again, but wasn't fast enough this time – the scythe clipped him in the side, getting a hiss of pain from him. It hadn't quite broken through his aura, but a direct hit likely would.

 _Is it teleportation, or just pure speed?_ His thoughts raced as he tried to figure out how she was disappearing from his sight.

She reappeared some distance away, aiming her scythe at him – his sword leapt up to block the ensuing bullets. While they were significantly more powerful than the ones Blake fired with Gambol shroud, they were still within his ability to block.

Seeing that her gun wasn't effective, she hefted her scythe once again. This time, he was ready for her. As she vanished, he twisted around, spinning his blade like a miniature whirlwind of steel, in the same way he had prevented Blake's multi-pronged assaults earlier. There was a satisfying clang as his sword hit her scythe's handle directly, and knocked her flying away. Adam himself was forced back several feet by the force of the impact.

"Oh dear, I lost my first game!" His attention, and his opponent's, were momentarily taken by yet another new arrival – this one another girl with orange hair, but no notable weaponry.

 _Another one? Another team-mate, maybe?_

"Penny," the girl fighting him ordered, "Stay back! I'm finishing this!"

He tensed, and prepared himself as she disappeared again – only this time, she actually stopped further _away_ from him.

"She knows I can block her rifle..." he almost paled as he realised her intention, "...Oh, shit."

It was a run-up.

She rocketed forwards. He prepared, once again, to attack with his sword – moving at this kind of speed, getting close was as much a gamble for her as it was for him, and her manoeuvrability going at that kind of speed could not have been excellent, so he had a good chance of at least ensuring she collided with his blade - which would certainly be the end of her.

Speeding up further with a shout, she became a literal red blur, twisting so fast that the air around her began to spin like a miniature, horizontal tornado.

He lashed out to the area directly in front of him – and hit nothing. With a cry of exertion, she had come to a complete stop, a few meters in front of him.

It was enough to make him pause in confusion. That was a mistake.

The shock wave hit him with the force of a moving train. Pain racked his body and he could not suppress his shout as a bone-crunching wave of force barrelled into him, sending him flying backwards - straight into the first cargo container he connected with, and clean out of the other side. He continued flying, until he finally found himself embedded in the next one.

The attack wasn't finished with him yet, however. His eyes widened in apprehension as the trailing wind she had generated from her movement picked the first container clean off the ground, and began carrying it towards him.

He frantically tried to pull himself free, but was unable to do so before the container impacted his own with a thunderous crash.

* * *

Ruby surveyed the damage caused by her attack. Two of the large cargo containers were basically now a mish-mash of shattered metal. Part of her worried that the bad guy might not have survived it, but she had other matters to consider first.

"That was very impressive, Ruby!" Ruby's newest friend exclaimed in awe as she appeared at her side.

Her amazement turned to surprised fear as Ruby began swaying on her feet. Penny hurried to steady her. "Are you feeling all right, Ruby?"

"Overdid my semblance," Ruby groaned, "Penny, can you put me down and check on Blake? I think she's hurt. I'll be fine."

"I will do it, Ruby!" Penny saluted, letting go of Ruby – who squeaked in surprise as she hit the ground with a quiet 'thump'.

"Right," Ruby muttered painfully to herself from where she was lying, "I guess I need to be a bit more specific with how I word things around you."

A noise from the wreckage made her blood run cold. Tilting her head over to where she had sent her enemy, her eyes widened in fear as she saw him stagger out from the wreckage of the two containers. He looked in a bad way – his mask was cracked up, his clothes torn, he was covered in blood, and he was favouring his left side.

"I swear," he growled, limping towards her, "I'm going to kill every single one of you damn kids."

Ruby tried to pull herself to her feet, but her legs felt as though they were made of lead, and her arms were not much better. Using her semblance so much and so frantically had effectively taken her out of the fight. She made a big gamble, and it had failed.

She blinked as a pair of feet stepped on front of her field of vision.

"I don't want you to hurt my friend," Penny declared.

"Penny, what are you doing? Run!" Ruby urged her.

"Don't worry, Ruby," she beamed, "I am combat ready!"

Ruby felt her mouth open in shock as Penny's backpack opened up, revealing a group of swords. They exited the pack, and began floating around her, like a small swarm of sharpened steel, awaiting the command of their queen.

Despite the severity of the situation, Ruby couldn't quite help herself.

"That is so _cool_."

* * *

Adam warily regarded the floating swords. If she could control all of those at once and independently, he was in serious trouble.

He blinked as the swords, instead of flying towards him as he would have initially assumed, formed together directly in front of her in a steel cylinder.

He resisted the urge to sigh in relief as green energy started to form in the middle of it. Instantly, his hand found his sword handle, and he prepared as quickly as he could. On Blake's last day with the White Fang before her desertion, where they had raided a Schnee Dust Company train, he had absorbed the energy beam of a large robotic defender with his sword, and used it to strike back and destroy the automation. His ability to do so had improved since the, and this girl did not look quite as menacing as the robot had... but he knew looks weren't anything, and he wasn't exactly in top condition.

 _This is going to be close. It's a good job I've been working on this ability._

* * *

Ruby stared in awe as a green ball of energy charged up in the middle of Penny's floating swords.

 _What's she going to do with that?_

Her question was answered as the ball expanded, becoming a large, extended beam that fired off towards the swordsman.

 _Laser beam. She can fire an actual laser beam,_ Ruby thought in excitement. Excitement turned to confusion and wariness as the beam impacted the man's sword with an indecipherable noise. However, instead of blowing him away or cleaving through his sword, the beam stopped short once it reached the blade.

Penny frowned, seemingly equally confused.

The man seemed to be straining furiously against something as his sword blocked the beam – until, finally, the energy disappeared entirely, and he staggered slightly, his hair and many of the markings on his tattered clothing now glowing brightly.

Before Ruby could figure out what that might have meant, he returned fire with a quick, horizontal slash, that Ruby actively felt pass over her head. But she wasn't particularly concerned about herself.

She was more concerned about her new friend - whom the extended slash had passed clean through at the middle.

"Oh dear," Penny said faintly, before her legs separated from her body, both halves of the once-whole girl hitting the ground with a dull thud.

Ruby stared, white-faced with horror.

"PENNY!"

* * *

Adam gave a painful, but victorious chuckle as he began limping towards the group. He'd finally beaten them all. Killed his first one. Now he just had to kill the other two, jump on the drop ship, and get out of there.

Even as these thoughts of victory rolled through his mind, he couldn't quite help but feel that he had forgotten someth-

 _BOOM._

* * *

"And _that,_ " Roman observed, lowering Melodic Cudgel as the White Fang leader fell to the ground, unmoving, "Is why you don't take your eyes off the most underhanded person in the room. Or the docks, as the case may be," he amended, "Am I right, Junior?"

He gave the body at his feet a quick glance. "Ah, I forgot," he palmed his forehead, "Being dead certainly puts a damper on your conversational skills. Though in your case, it probably improved them."

He walked over to the only other conscious person left in the vehicle bay. "Hey, Red! You're welcome!"

The girl was staring in horror at the other girl, who had been sliced in half. _Nasty._

"So, err, your friend in black over there saved my life, I saved yours, and probably hers, so despite her holding a sword to my throat, I'd say that makes us even." He neglected to mention that taking down the guy had significant benefit for him, as well. "And, uh, sorry about your friend there being half the girl she used to be?" He really wasn't good at the whole 'comforting' thing. It didn't help that he was normally the reason people needed comforting, of course.

"Your concern is appreciated, sir!" He nearly jumped out of his skin when the bisected girl started talking, "But I am sure they will re-attach them soon enough!"

He stared. "You know, you kids just keep getting _weirder._ "

"P-Penny?!" the red girl gaped.

"Ah!" 'Penny' said, "Uh, it's not what it looks like, Ruby!"

"Err... what do you think it looks like?" Ruby said in shock, "Because to me, it looks like you got cut in half and you're still... well, not dead?"

"I... well..." Penny looked like a person scrambling for an excuse. Roman had seen many in his time.

He was pulled from his own disbelief by a sound coming from above. He looked up, and cursed. "Damn it, the ships!"

Melodic cudgel snapped up, Roman aiming intently, hoping to try and shoot at least one down.

It would turn out that he didn't need to.

 **"RAAAAAAGH!"**

He stared in shock once again as a blonde, teenage girl leapt off a nearby roof and onto the bonnet of one of the Bullheads, before smashing down upon it with a series of mighty punches. Each one sent the dropship lower, as she punched the vehicle all the way to the ground, where it impacted with a thunderous explosion.

The others frantically tried to dislodge their clamps and escape – only for a _second_ one to begin descending to the ground, engines entirely frozen over. It collided with the ground in a huge explosion. A new bullhead came into view from above, this one not painted in White Fang colours, but with the recognisable emblem of Beacon Academy.

* * *

"Take us in closer!" Weiss ordered from the door of the Bullhead as they closed in on the other two drop-ships, "I need a clean shot!"

"I'm trying!" the pilot called back. The White Fang ships began ascending, attempting to escape. One turned its mounted gun on Weiss' Bullhead.

"They're shooting back!" Weiss warned the pilot, Myrtenaster snapping into motion. Large walls of ice appeared temporarily in between the ships, taking most of the bullets, only a few getting through to strike Weiss' ship. Eyes narrowing, her rapier blurred up to deflect one that flew dangerously close to her head.

As the ice walls fell to the ground below, her own ship took the opportunity to pull closer, and Weiss saw her opportunity. With a flourish, she fired a series of icy bolts off towards the wing of one of the other ships – while she missed with the first two, the third froze over the engine, causing it to stall. Suddenly only propelled by one side, the vehicle tilted dramatically and began moving sideways.

As Weiss had hoped, its new, uncontrolled course now sent it crashing directly into the White Fang's other Bullhead. Both ships, unable to fly, began toppling out of the air.

"That settles that," she nodded in satisfaction, "Now take us down!"

* * *

The two ships hit the ground with yet another large explosion. Roman was equally bemused and thankful that there weren't police and news crews all over the Docks, yet.

He shook his head, deciding not to question good fortune, and turned away from the wreckage. "Well, it looks like they've got things well in hand here. Now where's Neo?"

As if called, the girl appeared, looking quite satisfied, and dropping two unmoving forms at his feet.

He raised an eyebrow at the bloody stain on her face and the girls, who, upon closer inspection, looked somewhat like they had been worked over by an angry Goliath.

He raised the other eyebrow. _Wow, she must have been really pissed._ "They still alive?"

She reluctantly nodded.

"Let's bring them with us," Roman decided, "Because Junior isn't, and these two are useful enough that I might think about offering them alternative employment."

Now, it was her turn to raise an eyebrow. "He knew too much about us to let the authorities get him," Roman explained, "And he wasn't useful enough to justify keeping him alive, unlike those two. The minions don't know enough to cause us problems. Besides," he smirked, "I thought it was about time for Junior's little enterprise to experience a... hostile takeover, if you will."

Nodding in acceptance of his reasoning, she grabbed the two girls by the back of the collar.

* * *

 _Wait, aren't they those girls from Junior's place?_ Yang thought in confusion, before the four strange individuals seemingly vanished with a shattering of glass. "What the hell? Damn it, never mind that, Bla- RUBY!"

Her eyes lay on her little sister, currently lying on the floor. Yang rushed over frantically. "Ruby! What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"No," Ruby reassured her hastily, "Just overdid my semblance. Check on Blake!"

"It was very impressive!" Yang did a double take as what was literally half a girl spoke up.

"Yang! Blake! Now!" Ruby urged.

Yang snapped out of her shock, and rushed back towards Blake – who was currently being tended to by Weiss.

The Schnee Heiress looked grim as she turned to the approaching Yang. "She's taken a bad hit. She's bleeding. We've got to get her back to Beacon, right now."

Yang stared in shock at the sight of her partner, unconscious, unmoving, and pale. "Will she be all right?"

"I've covered the wound as well as possible," Weiss explained, "That's the best we can do here, she needs a medical professional and proper facilities. Get her and Ruby, and that other girl, into the ship and get them back to Beacon as soon as you can."

"What about you?" Yang asked, never more thankful that at least one of them could remember everything from the first aid part of their classes.

"I started this mess by opening my idiot mouth," Weiss said bitterly, "The least I can do is restrain these ruffians and guard them until the authorities arrive."

Yang bit her lip. "This isn't your fault," she said after a moment, "Her running away? That was _partly_ on you. But this?" She indicated to the wreckage of the White Fang drop-ships, "This is all those guys. Don't get too hung-up on blaming yourself. If you hadn't brought the ship..." she trailed off, "Just, bear it in mind."

There were more important things to worry about right now than getting angry at Weiss over this. Like getting Blake, her sister and... whoever that crazy half-a-girl was back to Beacon as soon as possible.

She picked up Blake in a princess carry, and hurried over to the waiting transport, as carefully as she could, taking notice of the surroundings as she did so.

 _What the hell did you get yourself into, Blake?_


	16. A Chance for Change

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. It belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Blake felt her eyes slowly pry themselves open.

The first thing she noticed was the over-abundance of white. _Where am I?_

 _...Am I dead?_

Then she caught sight of the light attached to the bland, white ceiling, and felt more than a little silly. _Ah._

"Oh, my," her eyes widened as a familiar voice hit her ears, "I didn't expect you to wake up when I was here. I must be a good luck charm. I'm glad to see you're all right, Blake."

"Velvet?" Blake muttered in confusion, before her memories seemed to rush back and she sat up sharply, "Wait, where am I? Where's Adam? What happened?"

"Easy," her fellow Faunus reassured her from her chair beside Blake's bed, "You don't want to move around too much, you're still recovering. To answer your question, you're in the emergency medical ward at Beacon, and I only know the basics, but from what I can gather, the rest of your team made it to the docks in time to stop the White Fang and the criminals from killing you or taking the Dust."

Blake looked at her, confused. "How did you know I was fighting the White Fang?"

"Well," Velvet smiled, before turning up the television in the room, where a news report was playing.

" _In other news, the City of Vale is still in an uproar over what many are now calling 'The Battle at the Docks', where local criminal groups and the White Fang seemingly clashed over a shipment of Dust... with deadly results. The potential damage would have been far worse, if not for the intervention of a group of first-year students from Beacon to both limit the damage and take the battling criminals into custody. Weiss Schnee, Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and one of the students responsible for stopping the criminals had this to say at the scene:"_

" _My team-mate Blake was the one who informed us of what was happening,"_ Blake gasped as Weiss appeared on the screen, reluctantly answering a reporter to the backdrop of a scene of what could only be described as absolute carnage. Wrecked cargo containers, broken ground and fallen airships littered the area, none of which Blake remembered seeing before she passed out. _"_ _And she was the one who engaged them, on her own, to buy time for us to arrive,_ _at great cost to her own health_ _. If not for her heroic actions,_ _these_ _criminals almost certainly would have gotten away with that vital shipment of Dust_ _and almost certainly would have gone on to ruin many lives_ _. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to find out if my team-mate is_ _going to recover_ _."_

The screen cut back to the news studio, where the anchor-woman was still speaking. _"Officials say that dozens of White Fang members and known criminals have been taken into custody. Notorious criminal Hei Xiong was found dead at the scene, currently believed to be a casualty of the White Fang. Officials also indicated that a high-ranking member of the White Fang was taken into custody and is undergoing emergency medical treatment."_

Blake felt numb. Did that mean they'd brought _Adam_ into custody?

" _Miss Blake Belladonna, the young huntress-in-training who heroically engaged the criminal groups on her own, was taken to Beacon Academy's emergency treatment facility with severe injuries. We do not have an update on her condition yet, but already, cards and well-wishes are pouring in from the public, thanking this young heroine for protecting our city, and wishing her a speedy recovery, a gesture that we all share. This is Lisa Lavender -"_

The television was switched off again. Blake looked back at Velvet, who silently bade her to look around.

That was when she finally noticed the cards. How she had missed them at all was beyond her. Dozens, no, hundreds of them, every possible variation of 'get well soon' and 'thank you', lining the walls, covering every flat surface. Then there were the balloons, with similar messages, and she was sure she spotted a pile of boxed chocolates in the corner.

"I..." she couldn't find the words. What had happened? Did her team beat Adam? Where were her team? Why was Weiss praising her so much on the news? And why on Remnant was she, of all people, getting so much positive attention when all she had accomplished was getting beaten senseless by Adam?

"It must be quite a lot to take in," Velvet said sympathetically.

"It is," Blake agreed faintly, "Where are the others? Are they all right?"

"Oh, don't worry," Velvet gave a small laugh, "They're all fine. Ruby apparently had a bad case of aura exhaustion, but she certainly got over it quickly enough to sit in here for hours on end, waiting for you to wake up. I offered to keep you company for a short while after Professor Goodwitch managed to convince them that you aren't going anywhere, and they also need to sleep," her smile then turned into a stern frown, "I have to say, though, I'm quite annoyed at you. I didn't think you'd do something as silly as to run off and try to get yourself killed after I gave you that advice. You had us all very worried."

"Sorry," Blake said ashamedly, "I wasn't trying to get killed. I promise. I just wanted to prove that we aren't all like them."

"And you've done so," Velvet agreed, "Magnificently. But now, it's my turn to apologise."

"For what?" Blake asked in confusion.

"For sending your team leader a message to let her know you're awake. I assume you're in for quite the telling off," Velvet replied, putting away her scroll.

"Ah," Blake winced, "Yes, I probably am. And we still need to clear the air over... what happened when I left."

"Somehow," Velvet sounded amused, "I can't imagine there will be too many problems there."

Blake was silent for a moment. "Velvet, did you ever have any problems with your team?"

"Over my heritage, you mean?" Velvet asked in return, getting a nod. "Hmm... well, I suppose I got lucky, really. None of them are really the kind of people who would care."

"How so?" Blake was curious.

"Well, for starters, there's Yatsuhashi," Velvet began, "He's something of a social outcast himself, as his size often made him... well, scary, to the people around him. He's a gentle giant, really, though – I don't think he's ever had a problem with anything, aside from the door to Professor Goodwitch's classroom," Velvet looked abashed, "It's set rather low. He keeps bumping his head on it. Coco thinks it's hilarious," she couldn't quite suppress her smile, "It is a bit funny. But don't tell him I said that."

Blake's lips twitched upwards slightly. "My lips are sealed."

"Well, then we have Fox," Velvet continued, "I read once that discrimination is a very tribal thing. 'Us', against 'Them'. And main thing people tend to use to decide whether you are 'us' or 'them', is your appearance. If you look different, as we do, well," she gave a sad smile.

"Fox doesn't have that, with his blindness. He didn't even realise I was a Faunus until three days after we formed a team. I thought he'd be mad that I didn't tell him. He just shrugged it off like it didn't matter to him at all, and I really don't think it did," she mused, "To someone like Fox, discrimination is quite silly. After all, he can get to know someone and grow to like them without ever finding out what race they are."

"And what about the last member? Coco?" Blake leaned forward in interest.

"Coco? No," Velvet shook her head, amused, "Something as lazy as racism doesn't fit into Coco's world-view. As far as she's concerned, if someone wants to be deserving enough of her attention to warrant _active dislike_ , they need to really work for it, not get it handed out for free merely because of an accident of birth."

"She... sounds like quite the character," Blake offered.

"She's not really a character as much as she is a force of nature," Velvet chuckled lightly, "But we couldn't ask for a better team leader. Yes, she's direct, cares little for what other people think, and can seem rather arrogant to people who don't know her, but she'll do anything for those people who she thinks are worth her time in the _right_ way, and she brings out courage and worth in the people around her that they never really knew they had, myself included."

Velvet then stood up. "Now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop taking your time for the afternoon, Blake," she gave a sly smile, "I think I hear your team-mates. Best of luck, and you know where to find me if you need anything."

She turned to open the door, and squeaked in surprise as she was nearly barrelled over by a red, white and yellow blur.

"BLAKE!"

Blake felt a strong pair of arms constrict tightly around her, shaking her back and forth as Velvet slipped out of the room.

"Don't – you – _ever –_ do – that - again!"

"Yang," Ruby spoke up worriedly, "Don't we need to be careful with her?"

"Gah!" Yang let go swiftly, and leapt back as though Blake was a live grenade, "I'm sorry! But I'm not sorry! Argh, and now I'm confused as well!"

"I get it," Blake reassured her, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run off like that. I've seen the news, and, well, all this," she waved around at the cards.

"Oh! Did you see our cards?" Ruby asked eagerly.

"Your cards? No, I only woke up a few minutes ago, and spent most of that taking everything – in..." she eyed her bed-side table. Sitting at the forefront of it were three cards, sitting in a row. A deep red one, with the word 'GET' on the front in black lettering, a pale white one with 'WELL' written on in silver, and a bright yellow one sporting 'SOON' in brown lettering.

"We made them ourselves," Ruby said proudly, "Not that I had anything better to do waiting in that stupid bed..."

"They're wonderful," Blake gave a watery smile, "Thank you. But... what happened?"

"Well," Ruby said thoughtfully, "I got there in time to see that Adam guy standing over you with his sword. I kind of flipped out, and fought him. I knocked him around the docks, but overdid my semblance while I was at it – I thought I'd taken him down, but he got up again, and I couldn't move a muscle.

"I'd been followed to the docks by this girl I met in the town centre, Penny," Ruby continued, "She was strange, but nice, and when that guy was about to get us, she went to fight him. These super-cool swords came out of her bag and started flying around, and then she shot a giant laser beam at him! It was so cool! Apart from the fact that it didn't work," Ruby said regretfully, "He did some weird thing with his sword where he absorbed the laser beam and then he started glowing."

Blake thought back to the last fight she had alongside him, on the train. "That old trick."

"Huh?"

"Nothing," Blake shook her head, "Go on."

"So anyway," Ruby made a horizontal chop with her hand, "He slashed with his sword, and cut Penny clean in half at the middle! I thought she was... you know," she stumbled over the word, "For sure, but she was okay!"

"Okay?" Blake asked in disbelief, "How can you be 'okay' from being _cut in half?_ "

"Well, you see," Ruby leaned in conspiratorially, _"She's a robot._ "

Blake opened her mouth, then closed it again. "What. I – no, forget about that. What happened after? Who took down Adam?"

"That guy in the hat," Ruby supplied, "He hit him with a cheap shot, said something about how you two were 'even', and took off after this girl in a cool outfit popped up with two other girls that Yang knows."

" _Knows_ is a bit of a stretch," Yang admitted, "They work, or, well, worked," she amended awkwardly, "For Junior, that 'notorious criminal' guy who they found dead. I got into a fight with them once. I won," she then quickly clarified.

Blake nodded. "And what about the Airships?"

"I punched one of them to the ground," Yang grinned proudly, "Weiss decided to be mean and hog the rest of them."

"I... may have commandeered one of the school's Bullheads," Weiss admitted, looking embarrassed, "I shot down the other three White Fang ships by freezing over their engines."

"And then we brought you, Ruby and that Penny girl here," Yang supplied, still grinning.

"Then some people from the Atlas Military and some kind of scientist showed up to pick up that Penny girl," Weiss added, "Which was strange, but we were more focused on you at the time."

Blake stared at the ceiling, trying to take it all in. "I can't believe all of that happened."

"No, me neither," Weiss sounded solemn, "Blake... I'm sorry."

Blake looked at her in shock. "What?"

"I was out of line in how I spoke to you the other night," Weiss said regretfully, "It was my fault you ran away and this all happened. I said all of those things about how much I hate the White Fang, and look how things turned out? You ended up nearly dying from trying to stop them, and after all my talk about hating the White Fang, where was I?" She asked bitterly, "Nowhere to be seen, until the very last minute."

"That wasn't any fault of yours, though," Ruby pointed out, "I put you there, remember? And you bringing the ship was a great help."

"I know," Weiss bit her lip, "But I still have my share of the blame. I made a promise to Ruby to be the best team-mate I could be. Apparently, I made that promise to the wrong person," She sighed miserably, "Look, I do hate the White Fang. But I want to be sure you know, I _don't_ hate Faunus. I don't think I made that clear when... tempers had risen," she said in embarrassment, "I don't hate you."

Blake looked down. "Maybe you should."

Ruby frowned. "Blake?"

"No more secrets," Blake said quietly, "I... I used to be a member of the White Fang."

The other two instantly turned to Weiss, looking worried.

She looked impassive. "The fact that you're lying here, having been seriously injured from fighting against them, has at least earned you the right to be heard out, I think."

"Thank you," Blake said appreciatively. She took a deep breath, and began to speak. "I was a member of the White Fang for most of my life. I was practically born into it. But you have to understand, the White Fang back then was not the same organisation. It was a symbol of peace, and unity, between Humans and Faunus after the war."

"Kind of hard to believe it was ever like that, with how they act now," Yang commented.

"Believe me, I know," Blake agreed sadly, "But they were. Even though we were promised fair treatment and equal rights, it never came. We were still discriminated against. So the White Fang rose up as the voice of our people. We would hold rallies and peaceful protests, and through all of it, I was there, at the forefront of every march, helping make the signs and placards, singing with the other protesters... I honestly thought we were making a difference."

"So something must have changed, between then and now," Weiss noted.

"It did," Blake nodded, "The leadership. A new leader stepped took over, with different ideas. Violent ones. Marches turned to riots, peaceful protest became organised attacks on businesses that wouldn't serve us. All I could do was watch, growing more and more horrified as their methods became more and more brutal, as everything we'd once stood for was washed away, in a river of blood. So then, I left," she sighed, "And came here. To dedicate my skills to being a Huntress. A criminal, hiding under everyone's nose, all with the help of this little black bow," she twitched her top pair of ears.

"Did you ever commit any murders? Did you kill anyone?" Weiss asked calmly.

"Weiss!" Yang hissed.

"No," Blake said, aghast, "I swear, I would never!"

Weiss leaned back. "I believe you. About that, about why you left, that you left at all. You've offered me quite convincing proof, after all."

Blake sighed in relief. "So... are we..."

"Yes," Weiss nodded with a small smile, "If you will forgive me for my part in this, I certainly forgive you for yours. We are fine. Let's not ever do this again, shall we?"

"No," Blake agreed, "Let's not."

"On that note," Ruby cut in, "I've got something to say."

The other three turned to their team leader. "From now on, we all make a promise," Ruby said sternly, "If there's a problem? We don't let it stew, or run away, we talk to each other about it, and we deal with it, _together_. This all could have been avoided, and I'm not going to let it happen again. So," she stared at them seriously, "Promise."

"I promise," Blake said quickly, "I'm sorry for running. I won't do it again."

"I promise as well," Weiss agreed, "You're right."

"I promise," Yang said, throwing an arm around Ruby's shoulder with a grin, "Look at you, acting like a real leader! Sometimes I wonder who the little sister really is."

"And I promise too," Ruby said promptly, "I'll even start now. Shut up, Yang, and stop embarrassing me."

They all broke out laughing – even Blake was quietly giggling along. Once the merriment had subsided, Weiss spoke up. "Now, Blake... I've had an idea."

"An idea?" Blake asked curiously.

"It has occurred to me that you have an... opportunity," Weiss began, "Whether you take it or not is entirely up to you, of course, but at least hear me out, please."

"An opportunity to do what?" Blake asked cautiously.

"To advance the cause of Faunus rights significantly, and deal the White Fang a serious blow, all without even having to raise your sword."

Blake stared. "I'm sorry. What?"

"Imagine what the public's opinion would be," Weiss began painting the mental picture for them, "If local heroine, Blake Belladonna, the one who selflessly stopped the White Fang, almost at the cost of her own life," she said with dramatic flair, "Were to go out in a public press conference... looking very worn down, still barely recovered from her injury, of course," she added quickly, "And tell her story... revealing that not only is she a _Faunus_ , but a former member of the _White Fang_ , too!"

"You want me to go _public?_ " Blake gaped, "Have you lost your mind?"

"Think about it," Weiss told her, "I want you to really think. How would they react?"

"I don't know," Blake shook her head, "Maybe they'd string me up!"

"As someone who knows her way around public relations, I'll tell you," Weiss said bluntly, "They'd eat it up. A young girl, defecting from the violent and cruel White Fang, and nearly sacrificing herself-"

"But I didn't intend to do that," Blake pointed out, embarrassed.

"They don't need to know that," Weiss waved away her objections, "Anyway, so she nearly sacrificed herself to stop the evil White Fang from committing a terrible crime, despite being a former member? They'd _love it_. If we spin it correctly? You can put the cause of Faunus rights forward by years, _decades_ , even."

"We?" Blake queried.

"I've done some thinking myself after what you said that night," Weiss said evenly, "And I think it's long past time the Schnee family actually began to address some of the distasteful actions my father has committed in our name."

"Hold on," Yang spoke up in dawning realisation, "That's why you were hamming it up for that reporter, getting everyone going crazy about Blake? You were setting this up?!"

"I merely stated a convenient truth. Admittedly, that was before I knew Blake was a former member of the White Fang," Weiss agreed shamelessly, "Now I know that, the opportunity we have is even better. Not only can you make people re-examine what they think they know about the Faunus, but you can inspire other members like you, who feel similarly about their methods, to follow your example and leave them as well."

"And you couldn't have waited to _ask me_ before you made me into some kind of martyred hero?" Blake hissed.

"I didn't do that," Weiss shook her head, "As I said, all I did was state the truth. You _are_ a hero, Blake, through your own actions. What you do with it is up to you... but this _is_ a very good chance to make things better for the Faunus – and worse for the White Fang."

"Proving them wrong," Blake whispered, looking conflicted, "I... I don't know if I can. They'll come after me. With everything they have."

"They can try," Ruby declared confidently.

"Yeah," Yang put a hand on her shoulder, "Whatever you decide to do, we've got your back, and so do all your friends. And so will all of Beacon, if we go to Professor Ozpin!"

"Aside from perhaps that oafish fool Winchester," Weiss added disdainfully, "But if he starts anything, we will finish it. So what do you say, Blake? This is entirely your decision, of course. You will lose nothing from it if you decide not to go ahead - you will, of course be famous for a few weeks, but it _will_ die down eventually."

"Are you sure doing this will have the effect you say it will?" Blake pressed her.

"Nobody can be sure of anything, Blake," Weiss shook her head, "But I've been in the public eye for a long time. I know how they think. I am as sure as I can be, or believe me, I would _never_ be suggesting this to you now."

Blake's mind raced. _Can I do this? It's what I always wanted_ , she thought, _A chance to make a difference, without violence._ _But can I really tell the whole world what I am? What I've done?_

Finally, she made her decision.

"I want to speak to Professor Ozpin."


	17. Epilogue One: A Rousing Speech

**A/N: Yes, unfortunately, you read the chapter title correctly. We're reaching the end of the first part of this story - fear not, though, I will be working on a sequel, which I'm tentatively calling Worse for Business, and will form part two of what I'm hopeful will be a longer series. As things stand, though, I want to spend a bit more time putting together more of a plot, and perhaps most importantly, coming up with more fight match-ups.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY. It belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Beacon's main hall had often served a double-function, not just as a meeting place for students and staff, but also as the main area where announcements to the media would be held. With the large amount of open space available for camera crews and a raised stage and podium for the speaker, it was well-suited for the task.

Which was why several of Vale's news outlets, and even some from further afield, such as Haven and Vacuo, were currently gathered in the hall, having been called there to hear an announcement regarding the 'Battle of the Docks', and the girls who fought in it.

When Professor Ozpin took to the stage, the curious muttering among the attending guests quickly died down.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, "Thank you for coming. I'm sure you are wondering why I called you here today."

He paused, letting the sudden surge of whispers stop. "As you are all no doubt well aware, there was a large altercation a few days ago at the Vale Docks, involving local criminal elements and the terrorist organisation known as the White Fang, as an attempted dust robbery turned fatally violent, causing significant damage as well as the loss of several lives. The robbery, and further damage, was only stopped by the intervention of several of our own first-year students here at Beacon Academy.

"We are, of course, immensely proud that our students chose to fight for what is right, even at the risk of their own safety. They all showed immense strength of character, and, while we would certainly rather our students waiting until they at least had a huntsman or huntress on hand before they got into so much trouble," he waited for the obligatory chuckles to die down, "We are honoured to count Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long among our students.

"Now, as you all may also be aware, Miss Belladonna was the first of the four to discover the disturbance, and fought the criminals on her own, at great cost to her own health. We are extraordinarily pleased to announce that not only will she will make a full recovery," he was forced to pause as a round of applause made it's way around the room, "But she also wishes to say a few very important words to all of you, here. Now, I would ask that you be patient," Ozpin's tone became stern, "Miss Belladonna is not used to public speaking, and this subject is a difficult one, so I request that you restrain yourselves from asking questions until she is done. Now, please, come in, Miss Belladonna."

Cameras flashed and scrolls typed furiously as team RWBY made their way onto the stage. Ruby and Weiss walked protectively on either side of the remarkably pale and wheelchair-bound Blake, who was being pushed carefully by Yang.

Yang set Blake up in front of a microphone stand, which Ruby promptly lowered for her until it was level with her face. She took a deep breath, and, with reassuring nods from her team-mates, began to speak.

"Hello, everyone," Blake began, "My name is Blake Belladonna. And the reason I am here today is to correct a misconception."

"The reaction to my part in the events of a few days ago has been... astounding. I could not believe it when I woke up and saw that so many people, whom I have never even met, wished me well and hoped for my recovery. Your kind thoughts helped me greatly. But as I said – I am here to correct a misconception. That misconception is that what I did that day was an act of heroism. I am here today to tell you it was not – what it truly was, was an act of seeking redemption."

With one motion, Blake's shaking hand raised to her head, and undid the small, black bow that hid her heritage from the world.

"I was once a member of the very organisation I fought a few days ago. I was once a part of the White Fang."

Absolute silence filled the hall.

* * *

Many of the other students had been having their lunch in Beacon's dining room when the press conference starting showing on the large screen – and as such, all were now watching intently.

"Oh, my," Velvet's eyes were wide, "I didn't expect her to do this."

"That doesn't seem like a smart move," Fox frowned, listening in.

"...No," Yatsuhashi spoke after a moment, "I think I understand the purpose."

Coco watched the screen, face unreadable. "This is a ballsy move," she finally weighed in, "You've got to introduce us to this friend of yours, Velvet."

* * *

" _I was very young when they first recruited me. Young, impressionable, saddened by an unfair world, that seemed to hate me for simply being what I was. They fed me, they gave me a place to sleep, they raised me, all while promising that we would put an and to the discrimination though peaceful methods, through protest and demonstration. And for a while, that is what we did. We held rallies, we marched, we chanted and we sang – and I really felt like I was a part of something great, something that would change things for the better. Things did change. But not the way I wanted them to."_

"Really," Cardin Winchester shook his head from his own position, standing by a table as he spoke loud enough for anyone to hear, "I can't believe I ever thought Belladonna was hot. Who would have guessed she was just another stupid animal? It was bad enough when it was just Scarlatina stinking up the place."

Back on their table, Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi shared a look.

* * *

" _New leadership came, and with it, came change. I soon found out that not all change is good – and that was certainly the case here. The peaceful protests were gone. The demonstrations stopped. Instead of preaching unity, our speakers preached hatred, and violence. Even though I hoped that things would fix themselves, that we would go back to the way we used to be... I was to be disappointed."_

Roman chuckled in amusement. "Well, well. The kitty has claws. This will get the White Fang's hackles up like nothing else."

"..." Neo poked her head in the door.

"Awake, are they? Good," Roman nodded, "Let me finish watching this and I'll be right along."

Neo blinked as she took in the situation on the screen, shooting Roman a questioning look.

"It's our friend from the Docks," Roman smirked, "The young, tragic heroine of the city. She's revealing that she was a former member of the White Fang."

Neo's eyes went wide. "..."

"Very gutsy," Roman agreed, eyes locked on the screen.

* * *

" _Things didn't change. They only got worse. Talking about violence turned to committing it, hate-speech sparked the flame of assaults, vandalism, theft... and even murder, as I could only watch on in horror. Finally, the day came when I could no longer hide behind my age, and they wanted me to take part. That was the final straw. I would not be a part of it. As soon as I had the opportunity... I left. I ended up on the run, fleeing for my life – until Beacon accepted me."_

The light from the screen lit the darkened office entirely, as three people observed the proceedings.

"Clever," Cinder admitted, "Very clever."

"I'm not sure I get it," Emerald admitted, "How is it clever?"

Cinder spared her a glance. "They are trying to win over public opinion for the Faunus, all while spreading doubt amongst the membership of the White Fang."

"Two Nevermore with one round," Mercury mused, "Do you think it will work?"

"Possibly," Cinder admitted, her frustration leaking into her voice slightly, "Recent... _failures_ , have not helped matters."

* * *

" _To my fellow Faunus in the White Fang, I want to say: Please, stop! Look where violence and hatred has gotten you! Things are not fair, they are not right, but what you are doing, what we were doing, it isn't the way to fix it! I got out – so can you. I was given a second chance, a chance to do something with my life, so can you! Together, we can prove to them all that we are their equals, we are people just like them, we aren't monsters!"_

"Look at that," growled the man next to him, "She sits up there, pretending that she understands us, but look who's standing next to her?"

"The Schnee brat," another hissed, "Of course this would be one of their schemes."

Tukson stayed silent, thoughts racing. Unlike his fellows beside him, he wasn't quite so dismissive – or quite so enamoured with the cause, any more. His original plan had been to leave for Vacuo – but it was a difficult and risky move, and if there was actually an opportunity for him to still make a life for himself by turning himself in...

* * *

"To all of you who have gathered here today, I want to say: If you take anything, at all, from my words here, please, let it be this. We aren't all like them. Most of us... we just want to live free from hatred, like so many of you do," Blake looked down, "That is all I have to say. Thank you for listening to me."

She waited with baited breath as the silence held for a few moments. Then, one man, standing near the front, began to clap. The woman next to him joined in. Then, as though a dam had burst, the entire hall was breaking out in applause.

Blake took it all in, stunned, as a reassuring hand fell on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw the smiling face of Weiss.

"I told you so," she mouthed.

Professor Ozpin stepped back to his microphone. "Thank you, Miss Belladonna, for that moving speech. Now, I'm sure many of you have questions. Please be aware that Miss Belladonna and her team-mates have the right not to answer any questions they deem fit," he then pointed to the first man who clapped, "If you could begin."

"Bayard Barnfield, Vale News Network," the large, brown-shirted man nodded, "That was a very moving speech, Miss Belladonna, but if I may ask, how do your team-mates feel about your past with the White Fang?"

Blake looked up at the others.

Ruby grabbed the mic first. "I'm Ruby. I'm Blake's team leader. I don't care about what Blake did when she was younger, she's my team-mate and I'm with her all the way."

"What she said," Yang agreed brightly as the mic was passed to her, "Except for the part about being Ruby or a team leader," a few chuckles rose from the crowd, "But seriously, Blake is my partner as a huntress and I trust her with my life. I've got her back." She then handed the microphone to the remaining member of the team.

"I do not care about Blake's past," Weiss said primly, "I care about her present and her future. I also stand with my team-mate, all the way."

"Thank you," Bayard nodded appreciatively, scribbling down the notes.

"If you could continue," Ozpin pointed out another woman further back in a black dress.

"Ciara Callaghan, The Vale Express," she said, "Miss Schnee, how does your father feel about your sharing a team with a former member of the White Fang?"

Weiss took the microphone again. "I believe you would need to ask him," she said innocently, "After all... I am not my father."

"I see," Ciara's eyes widened as she took in the double-meaning of that statement, "Thank you."

Ozpin pointed out another.

"Aurelius Adams, the Vacuo News. Will there be any punishment for Miss Belladonna due to her former membership in a criminal organisation?"

"I have worked out a suitable parole agreement with Miss Belladonna and the Vale Police department," Ozpin informed him, "We have struck the best compromise between allowing Miss Belladonna to continue her fine work as a huntress-in-training and ensuring she is aware that there are consequences to her actions."

"I am happy to abide by this agreement," Blake added after a prompt from Weiss, "I appreciate that despite my good intentions, I have committed wrongs and need to make up for them."

"We do, however, feel that Miss Belladonna has acquitted herself quite adequately with her heroic intervention at the Docks," Ozpin finished, "And the agreement was made with this in mind. I will also make clear that if any more current members of the White Fang wish to come forward and atone for their actions, we will do our best to come to an arrangement that allows you to atone for any wrongs you may have committed, while becoming a productive member of society. We will, of course, look more favourably on those who can do some part to help us stop the White Fang's campaign of terror."

* * *

The meat of the conference apparently over, most of the students began excitedly discussing it. One particular team were the exception.

"...So, Velvet," Coco began slowly, resting her elbows on the dining table, "I can't help but notice that some idiot first-year over there just spouted crap about you, and yet, he's still on his feet. Explain that to me, please."

"Please, leave it," Velvet sighed, "It's nothing."

"No," Yatsuhashi frowned, "It most certainly is not 'nothing'. You do not seem surprised."

"Has this been going on a long time?" Fox asked.

"Guys, please, leave it," Velvet pleaded.

"No," Coco denied her, "I know you can easily take on some firstie. Why are you letting him mouth off like that? You had no problems smacking down those White Fang idiots."

"I..." Velvet looked embarrassed, "Look, I know I _could_ make him stop. I just... I get so angry about it, that I don't trust _myself_ to stop with just doing that."

There was a moment of silence.

Then Coco slapped her around the back of the head.

"Ow..." Velvet rubbed the back of her head pitifully.

"You know, sometimes you say some really clever, wise stuff. But other times? You can be a total _dumbass_ ," Coco said in disbelief, "Can you believe this, guys?"

"I can't," Fox agreed.

"Nor me."

"I – wha?" Velvet stammered in confusion.

"After all," her leader cut her off, "You had to have known that there's no way the rest of your team would let you do something as _stupid_ as going too far when teaching some moron who was giving you trouble a lesson."

The team's male contingent both nodded in agreement.

"Definitely."

"We would step in long before things got that out of hand."

"But I didn't want to have to rely on you guys for – ow!" Velvet clutched her head again as a hand clipped the back of it, "Stop doing that..."

"Then stop being a dumbass," Coco retorted, "And saying stupid things like 'I don't want to rely on my team'. Think back for a minute. Major mission we had recently. There was a big guy, had a chainsaw, was kind of a badass, you might recall that we beat him senseless."

"Yes," Velvet nodded.

"How did we do it? Did the rest of us stand back and let Yatsuhashi deal with it on his own?"

"...No," Velvet admitted.

"Exactly," Coco nodded, "We didn't. Because we're a _team_. We've got each others' backs. It would be the same if Fox had a problem, or if Yatsuhashi had a problem, except for Professor Goodwitch's door because that's just too funny to do anything about."

Yatsuhashi mumbled mutinously.

"And if you had a problem too, of course," Fox cut in amusedly.

"I don't have problems," Coco responded idly, "Circumstances occasionally make the stupid mistake of getting in my way. But yeah, in the unlikely event that did happen, I'd drag you guys along to help me out, too."

"But... I don't want to get in trouble," Velvet bit her lip.

"You've got an entire canteen full of witnesses who'll say he deserved it," Fox cut in.

"And if the teaching staff wish to make a problem of it, they will have a problem," Yatsuhashi added with unusual harshness, "Namely, a problem about why they seemingly allow racism to go unchallenged in their school."

"...Okay, fine," Velvet sighed, smiling slightly as she stood up, "I get it. I'm sorry for being so silly. Can you watch my things?"

"Of course," Yatsuhashi nodded, "Do you want us to join in? I would not be adverse to assisting you."

"No," Velvet shook her head, "Like you said... I can take him. If his team-mates jump in, can you back me up if it looks like I'm losing?"

"Go and do bad things to stupid people," Coco gave her a thumbs up, "We're here if you need us, we'll keep an eye on your stuff, and the fight. Well, Fox won't, but you know what I mean."

"Your empathy for my condition is as heart-warming as ever," Fox said dryly, "Go ahead, Velvet. I'll keep my ears on you as well."

Velvet shook her head and took a deep breath as she approached the laughing Cardin Winchester. As she did so, her mind couldn't help but turn back to the many times he had pulled on her ears, or spilled her food and drink, or the times he called her names, or the times he told loud, off-colour jokes about Faunus when she was in ear-shot, or the times when...

Needless to say, by the time she actually reached him, she was in a markedly different mindset from the one she had been when she left her table.

* * *

Cardin was basking in the laughter of his team-mates as they reacted to yet another joke when he was tapped on the shoulder. He turned around, and blinked in surprise. That surprise quickly turned to amusement as he saw one of the usual targets of his scorn, Velvet Scarlatina, glaring angrily at him.

"Well, well," he smirked, "Looks like we can stop paying attention to the animal on the screen, guys, we've got another one right here, in its natural habitat! What do you want?"

"I want you not to be able to have children," Velvet told him, "But I'd settle for you shutting up."

Before he could ask what she meant by that, his world exploded in the unfathomable pain that could only be experienced by a man who was lifted clean off his feet by a hard kick to the crotch.

"Of course," Velvet continued, "I could just try for both at once."

As he landed, crumpling to the ground, the last thing Cardin heard before everything became agony was someone in the background shouting "That's my girl!"

* * *

Roman shook his head as he turned away from the television. "Kids these days," he remarked idly, "Getting into big battles, political grandstanding, what happened to just stealing candy from the store and selling it to the other kids?"

"...?" Neo looked at him in mock astonishment.

"Oh, ha ha," Roman said sarcastically, "Yes, at some point in my life, I really did take someone's money and actually give them something back for it. I wasn't born this good a criminal, you know, it took hard work to get here. And speaking of criminal enterprise," he left the small office space of their new warehouse building and began heading down towards the basement, "Lets expand ours a little more."

They entered the corridor, where a pair of cells had been installed – both with small openings at the top to let sound through, but no bars to allow for line-of-sight. That had been Neo's idea, after explaining the twins' new semblances to Roman as well as their line of sight limitation.

"Hello, girls!" Roman said cheerfully, "I hear you're awake! Let's talk about your new employment, shall we?"

"New employment?" Miltia asked, "Where are we? What happened to Junior?" She certainly did not sound one hundred percent - clearly, they hadn't fully recovered from the beating Neo had given them, which was good for him.

"You're in our new building, of course. As for Junior, he came down with a rather serious case of being dead," Roman replied idly, "You might want to be careful, though. I hear it can get contagious when people who tried and failed to plan my death ask stupid questions."

He began pacing up and down alongside the two makeshift cells. "Now, you made a stupid mistake. Of course you did! It's an important part of being a teenager, after all. The important thing, though, is that we _learn_ from our stupid mistakes, and grow, as people, because of it. Don't you agree?"

Another moment of silence. "...Yeah," Melanie spoke up cautiously.

"Of course you do!" Roman agreed cheerfully, "Now, I may have room in my business plan for two individuals with your particular... talents, especially since you figured out that little switching trick of yours, and I've got to admit, I'm almost impressed you kept that from both of us as long as you did. Of course, for you, there's the opportunity to put your stupid mistake _firmly_ in the past where it belongs, and earn some real cash."

"That all sounds good," Miltia spoke up, "But what if we don't want to work for you?"

"Well, like I said," Roman responded flatly, "Contagious."

"...We'll do it," Melanie and Miltia said at once.

"I thought you might say that," Roman agreed, "Now then, Neo, open the doors. I want these two with us for the next part."

"What's the next part?" Melanie asked.

"We're informing the remains of Junior's organisation that they've come under new management," Roman responded, "After that, I reach out to his network, and then? We start recruiting."

He paused. "Also, we need to do some work on this place," he eyed the walls, "I'd quite like to work out of something a bit classier than an old warehouse, after all. It's a good job Junior saved a load of his old equipment, isn't it..."


	18. Epilogue Two: A Foreshadowing

**A/N: Hi, folks. Terribly sorry for the rather bad delay in finishing this off - I've been extremely busy recently, new job and all that. So, without further ado, have the second part of the epilogue.**

 **Disclaimer: After all this time, I'm afraid I still don't own RWBY. It belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

Another poorly-hidden scowl, another grunt of disdain, another whispered conversation. Cinder noticed all of this and more as she stalked through the large warehouse and lobby of their base. She was not foolish enough not to understand what these signs were heading towards, nor was she particularly surprised after the last debacle some weeks before.

She was losing the White Fang.

Not in the sense of defection, of course. That little stunt Blake Belladonna had pulled had been a masterstroke in public relations from Beacon, and they had lost several members since, but _those_ numbers were manageable. No, the bigger problem was the unfortunate situation that lead to that press conference, the battle that resulted in the capture of Adam Taurus and the loss of quite a sizeable force of White Fang members, and before that, the loss of the Lieutenant and another several dozen members when her trap was so unexpectedly turned on her by Roman Torchwick.

The White Fang were not pleased that they had taken such a beating, both in the field and in the public eye. They needed someone to blame. And she was that someone. In a way, they were correct – she did have some of the responsibility. Had she not underestimated Torchwick so badly, those defeats may not have happened. She would not make that mistake again.

She caught sight of Mercury and Emerald, now recovered from their injuries. "Good, you're here," Cinder remarked, "Into my office. We need to speak."

The two nodded and followed her into the rather spartan room, sparsely decorated but for a desk, a wheeled, reclining chair, and the back wall which was adorned with dozens of photographs, newspaper clippings, blueprints, maps and notes.

Cinder sank into her chair, before speaking. "As you are no doubt aware, we have a very big problem."

Mercury snorted. "That's putting it lightly."

Emerald nodded. "You'd have to be blind not to see our popularity around here has taken a nosedive."

"Indeed," Cinder frowned, "But we still need the White Fang's manpower. Three people can not prepare the train, nor can we find another reliable enough source of personnel."

"Do we even have enough Dust to blow the tunnels?" Emerald asked sceptically.

"We will have to make do," Cinder informed her, before she turned to Mercury, "Roughly how many bombs do you think we could make with what we have?"

Mercury looked thoughtful. "Maybe two, three at best? Am I right in thinking that you have a plan?"

She stood up, and walked over to the planning wall, and stared at the blueprint of the subway tunnels, and the map of the ground overhead. "Perhaps. I think... yes. I believe we can still do it, even with merely two bombs. It will, however, take some more work on our part."

"How so?" Mercury asked.

"We will need to time the two bombs to perfection," Cinder began, pointing out two locations on the blueprints, "Here, and here. That's where they need to go off."

Mercury regarded the locations thoughtfully. "Both beneath large, open spaces."

"Yes," Cinder agreed, "That is where we can gather together the most Grimm before we set off the explosives."

Mercury nodded, "How will we gather enough Grimm together?"

Cinder smiled. "Oh, _that_ part is easy. What is the best way to lure in an animal?"

Emerald spoke up. "You use bait?"

"Yes," Cinder's eyes lingered on a photograph of Beacon Academy, "Precisely."

Mercury followed her gaze, and his eyes widened, before he smirked in realisation. "That's perfect – but how will you get them to bite?"

"With more bait," Cinder said mysteriously.

He stared at her, nonplussed, before shaking his head. "Well, you've got that part set up, but it doesn't change our other problem. What do you want us to do about the White Fang?"

Cinder's smirk turned to a frown. "That is something I have given a large amount of thought to. I've gone over our options, and the way things are, I fear there's only one thing we can do to keep the White Fang's loyalty."

"And what's that?" Emerald asked eagerly.

"To put it plainly?" Cinder said simply, "We are going to organise a prison break."

* * *

The new place was really starting to shape up.

While they weren't ready to start installing Junior's old equipment just yet, they did have the walls and flooring, smooth and flat for the perfect dancing surface, put in, as well as the basic structure of the bar itself – which Roman was currently leaning on as he took what he felt was a well-earned break.

Between overseeing the construction of his new business headquarters, and reaching out to Junior's large network of contacts to inform them of the change of leadership and ensure their continued commitment to the cause, Roman rarely had time to relax. It was almost like hard work. Or, at least, what he imagined hard work was like, never having experienced it for himself.

Neo sighed beside him. As his business partner and bodyguard, she had naturally been just as busy as he had over the last couple of weeks.

"I know," he groaned, "But just think of the end-game."

"..." she grumbled.

"Yes, it's definitely going to be worth it. I mean, come on, look around you," he indicated the partly-furnished interior, "Think of how this place will look when it's done? And it'll be all ours."

"It is something of an impressive sight already, I must admit."

Roman's blood ran cold. Neo whirled around sharply, before she froze, suddenly looking very pale.

"Oh dear," Headmaster Ozpin said in bemusement, "I fear for my position as a head of education if this is the reaction I inspire in the youth of today."

Neo's hand began inching toward her parasol.

"We both know that will not end well, young lady," Ozpin told her gently.

Sweating, she nodded, hand dropping down to her side.

"What are _you_ doing here? How did you even find this place?" Roman asked in bewilderment, "Wait, is this about the email? Because I'd like to make it clearly known that I never would have written _half_ of that if I knew there was any chance whatsoever of me actually talking to you face-to-face."

Ozpin chuckled. "No, Mr. Torchwick. I am not so petty as to respond to insulting emails with personal visits. As for how I found you, I would simply have you trust that I have my ways."

Roman would have breathed a sigh of relief, if not for the fact that he was still fairly sure there was a distinct possibility of him ending up in jail by the end of this conversation. "That doesn't give me much of a clue as to why you're here."

"I merely wished to meet with you," Ozpin hummed, "After all, you have been surprisingly invaluable in dealing with a particularly dangerous threat to the City. That is certainly not the norm for petty criminals, and I hope you believe me when I say that I have known many in my time."

"Yeah, well," Roman said non-committally, "Profit and self-preservation are surprisingly good motivators."

"Indeed," Ozpin agreed, "Your successes have made me aware that a man of your... particular talents," he paused, "Can be remarkably useful. And the threat is still at large."

"...Woah, hold on. You want me to _work_ for you?" Roman stared, surprise overcoming his initial fear.

"Perceptive, but I expected that of you," Ozpin smiled, "I do not want you to work for me. I merely wish to ensure you continue to be a thorn in the side of our mutual enemy."

"That crazy fire-throwing witch," Roman muttered, "Yeah, I'm not really seeing why I should go out of my way to tangle with her now. I've gotten what I wanted out of this whole thing... the Dust robberies have stopped, she's got so much heat on her that I doubt she can poke her head out the door of wherever she's holed up without a squad of Huntsmen dropping on her, and I've basically taken over the city's 'interesting side'. If I keep taking risks and going after her the way I have been, it's only going to reduce my chance of keeping my head... in short," he said carefully, still keenly aware that he was on thin ice here, "How do I benefit from keeping this little shadow game going?"

"This threat is larger than just one woman," Ozpin informed him simply, "In fact, this may be part of a conspiracy that threatens the stability of all the Kingdoms. On top of that, I'm sure you are not foolish enough to assume that Miss Fall and her group will be willing to simply leave you be after the rather decisive blows against them you have been instrumental in orchestrating. Of course, if even that doesn't convince you..." Ozpin trailed off, "Well, in return for your cooperation, I may decide to... overlook, certain matters that may come to my attention."

Roman mulled over the offer. Ozpin would occasionally look the other way, and protect him from Cinder's inevitable vengeance (which, admittedly, had been a major concern for him, despite the preparations he had already made), and in return, all he had to do was keep poking the crazy pyromaniac with a stick. On top of that, if her ultimate goal was what Ozpin implied it was... he pulled a cigar from his pocket, and placed it in his mouth.

"A threat to the stability of all the kingdoms, you say?" he sighed, lighting the cigar and taking a deep drag, "That... sounds very bad for business."

* * *

 ** _Fin_**

 **That's all for now, folks.**

 **See you... possibly in a couple of months when Volume 3 comes out, or possibly sooner if I think up enough material not to need it in that time period, but I'll definitely see you!**

 **Keep an eye out for the sequel, and also, if you enjoyed this, please keep an eye out for any other stories I may put out in the meantime.**

 **And once again, thank you all for your great reviews and interest.**

 **Yours awkwardly but sincerely,**

 **RumbleintheDumbles**

* * *

 **P.S. Or not quite yet!**

* * *

In the library of Beacon Academy, a team of four first-year students went about their day.

"Say..." Jaune pondered, "Are any of you guys getting the feeling that we've somehow missed out on a load of really important stuff happening?"

"Nope," Nora supplied cheerfully.

"I'm afraid not," Ren shook his head.

"Nor me," Pyrrha spoke up, looking at Jaune curiously, "Why do you ask?"

"Eh," Jaune shrugged, "Just a feeling. Must be nothing."

* * *

 ** _Fin_**


End file.
